Tour de France stage winner Zakarin will not be allowed to compete at Rio Olympics after IOC ruling
Russia will not be allowed to enter any athletes to the Olympics who have been sanctioned for doping
Ilnur Zakarin, who won Stage 17 of the 2016 Tour de France, will be prevented from participating in the Rio Olympics after the International Olympic Committee made a ruling on the participation of Russian athletes in the 2016 summer games. Zakarin rides for WorldTour Team Katusha and was selected for the Russian entry to the Olympic men’s road events along with Pavel Kochetkov and Sergey Chernetskiy
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The IOC decision on Russia athlete participation included the condition that, “The Russian Olympic Committee is not allowed to enter any athlete for the Olympic Games Rio 2016 who has ever been sanctioned for doping, even if he or she has served the sanction.”
In 2009, Zakarin served a two-year doping ban for the use of anabolic steroids. The ruling would also affect Olga Zabelinskaya who was set to ride the women’s road events. In July 2014, Zabelinskaya tested positive for octopamine and in February 2016 she accepted a retroactive ban that expired in September 2015.
On July 18, Canadian law professor and sports lawyer Richard McLaren in a press conference in Toronto revealed that a WADA commissioned report found that Russia’s sports ministry directed, controlled and oversaw doping and the manipulation of tests by Russian athletes and officials at the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics. Russia’s track and field team has already been banned from participating in the summer Olympics. Russian athletes in other sports who meet all the IOC’s conditions will be allowed to participate in the 2016 games.
“Russian athletes in any of the 28 Olympic summer sports have to assume the consequences of what amounts to a collective responsibility in order to protect the credibility of the Olympic competitions, and the ‘presumption of innocence’ cannot be applied to them,” read the decision.
With 12 days to go until the opening ceremonies of the Rio games, the IOC were forced to make a decision on Russia’s participation after international pressure mounted to ban the entire delegation. Other cyclists and athletes who have served doping bans will be allowed to participate in Rio.
