Wrestling body validating Russians for Rio
The governing wrestling body UWW says it has started a process to validate each Russian wrestler qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
A statement from UWW president Nenad Lalovic on Tuesday said the federation had requested more information on Russian wrestlers, implicated in connection with disappearing positive tests, as reported last week by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The news came after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Sunday decided against a blanket ban on all Russian athletes for the August 5-21 Games, leaving it to the sports' federations to decide which Russians would be eligible to compete in Brazil.
Twelve men and five women from Russia are qualified for Rio but a UWW 2016 drug testing pool lists only one woman along with 12 men.
Lalovic said all Russian wrestlers qualified for Rio had been tested up to four times by laboratories outside Russia, and they had commissioned a Swedish company for random tests in Russia, to be examined by the lab in Cologne, Germany.
"United World Wrestling is committed to work jointly with the World Anti-Doping Agency and the IOC to preserve the integrity of sport and ensure wrestlers are clean," he said.
Russian wrestlers won 11 medals at the London 2012 Games, and the UWW executive committee includes two influential Russians in Natalia Yariguina and Mikhail Mamiashvili.
