Russian athletes appeal against the ban

Russia is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Since the order of a blanket ban on the athletes by the IOC to it being lifted has been a long struggle for clean athletes.
London Olympics medalists Vladimir Morozov along with Nikita Lobintsev have launched an appeal against the ruling, banning them from next month’s Rio Olympic Games even though they have never failed a doping test.
Their appeal to the international sports tribunal against the decision of swimming’s world governing body FINA to ban them for not falling within the IOC’s new criteria on allowing Russian competitors to compete came yesterday. According to the new rule, only the athletes who can prove their disassociation with the country’s doping reputation would be eligible to take part in the Games.
Morozov was part of Russia’s bronze-medal winning 4x100m freestyle team at the London 2012 Games, while Lobintsev also won a silver medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay at Beijing 2008.
The two swimmers were suspended after they were named in relation to the false reporting of positive samples in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) led by an independent report into doping in Russia.
Neither swimmer has ever served a ban for a positive test. Lobintsev tested positive for meldonium earlier this year but was then cleared and given a ‘no fault’ finding.
Former world junior champion Daria Ustinova, also banned by FINA and who was given a warning over steroid use when she was 14, and four other swimmers who have previously served doping suspensions have not appealed.