Seven Russian athletes not eligible to participate at Rio Olympic: FINA

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) on Monday said seven Russian swimmers were not eligible to compete at the upcoming 2016 Rio Olympic Games, in the context of Russia being mired in doping scandals.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Person (IP) report established the anti-doping rules were not properly applied and notably that a number of samples collected from Russian swimmers were not correctly reported in accordance with FINA anti-doping rules.

FINA has decided it will subject the eligibility of Russian athletes to specific additional criteria, such criteria being consistent with the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) requirements published on July 24.

The IOC will only accept the entry of a Russian athlete in the Olympic Games Rio 2016 if he or she is able to provide evidence to the full satisfaction of his or her respective international sport federation.

Based on this criteria, FINA decided that seven swimmers were not eligible to compete at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The seven athletes are Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Yulia Efimova, Natalia Lovtcova, Anastasia Krapivina, Nikita Lobintsev, Vladimir Morozov, and Daria Ustinova.

However, FINA noted there was no indication in the IP report that athletes of the Russian Synchronised Swimming Federation, Russian Diving Federation and Russian Water Polo Federation would be implicated.

After the publication of the WADA report, FINA has decided to re-test all the samples of Russian athletes collected at the Kazan 2015 FINA World Championships. Endit