Russia's lone athletics team member at the Rio Games, long jumper Darya Klishina, on Monday welcomed the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling to allow her to compete and is thankful she can turn her attention to the competition.
Rio de Janeiro (dpa) - "With the appeal now behind me, I can thankfully focus my time and attention on competing tomorrow night and enjoying my Olympic experience, which I have dreamed of since I first began long jumping as a young girl," Klishina posted on Facebook.
Russias lone athletics team member at the Rio Games, long jumper Darya Klishina.
"The Court of Arbitration for Sport set aside the (ruling athletics body) IAAF decision and confirmed that I am a clean athlete who remains eligible to compete under IAAF rules in the Olympic Games and other international competitions."
International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesman Mark Adams said the IOC was content to abide by the ruling.
"It‘s for the IAAF, as it was for all federations, to determine the pool of eligibility of their athletes," Adams told reporters at the IOC daily briefing in Rio.
"We totally respect the decision by CAS, we have to respect the decision by CAS.
"I think it‘s another underlining of the need to take each case individually and offer individual justice to individual athletes, and we follow what CAS tells us."
And German Athletics Federation sports director Thomas Kurschilgen said if it was "adequately established" that Klishina had undergone a long period of doping controls outside of Russia, it was "understandable" the CAS found in her favour.
In a 2 am statement, the CAS said it granted Klishina‘s appeal because the athlete fulfilled the IAAF requirements and indicated that she could compete in qualifying on Tuesday.
"The IAAF decision of 9 July now remains in effect which found that I was eligible because I was available to reliable drug testing around the world almost 90 per cent of the time," Klishina said.
US-based Klishina was the only Russian athlete allowed in at the Rio Games by the IAAF because she underwent doping tests outside Russia. The IAAF then suspended her on Saturday based on new information from a report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren.
The details of this information have not been confirmed but respected journalist Hajo Seppelt of German broadcaster ARD tweeted Sunday: "alleged #doping cover up according to McLaren Report/IAAF: two DNA from different persons in one urine sample at more than one of Klishina‘s urine sample bottles scratches allegedly have been found (sic)."
But the CAS said "the previous decision of the IAAF, that the athlete complied with the relevant criteria because of her permanent residence outside Russia, still applied despite the additional information provided by Prof. McLaren."
If Klishina‘s samples were found to have two DNA strands present, that alone would not prove she was guilty of any offence.
"That would be a case of manipulation and it would have to be followed up with a hearing to find out what the cause of this was," IOC medical and scientific director Richard Budgett said when answering a general question on the topic which did not refer to Klishina.
"You do not expect to find two people‘s urine in the same urine sample."
The IAAF on Monday confirmed the CAS decision to allow Klishina to compete in a brief statement.
McLaren‘s July 18 report for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed widespread and state-sponsored doping in Russia.
Russia escaped a blanket ban despite the grave allegations, but its athletes had to meet strict criteria to compete in Brazil, with some 280 of them now at the Games.
US-based Klishina was the only Russian track and field athlete allowed to compete in Rio, after the Russian athletics federation was suspended over doping practices in the country and its other 67 proposed Olympic athletes were banned - a ruling confirmed by CAS last month.
Klishina, the two-time European indoor champion, came in for criticism at home and was accused of being a traitor on some Russian social media sites.
But Russian officials celebrated the CAS ruling as an important victory.
"Justice triumphed," Dmitry Svishchev, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs, told the Tass agency.
"The court understood that there were no facts about any kind of violation."
"We just need to express satisfaction with the decision, to calm down and get started already tomorrow. It‘s very difficult for her," Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko was quoted as saying by the Interfax agency.
"Her preparation was interrupted. The decision was objective. A person cannot be punished for what he or she did not do."
