In the face of calls to ban Russia from competing in the upcoming Rio Olympics, the International Olympic Committee on Sunday deferred decisions about the eligibility of the country’s athletes to the international federations that govern each sport.
The decision now moves the heavy lifting of determining whether individual athletes can demonstrate sufficient anti-doping records to ensure fair competition, a challenge for the international federations (IFs) as the IOC has advised reversing the presumption of innocence.
The Russian Anti-Doping Agency was declared non-compliant in November, and more revelations about doping mean IFs cannot trust negative drug test results from that agency.