Putin: no real shine for Rio2016 without the Russian athletes

The Russian president claims that the medals won on Rio 2016 without the Russian athletes will have a lower value.

The Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed today that the Olympic games will be less of a spectacle without the Russian athletes. In the case that is already coming to an end concerning the doping scandal with the Russian athletes Putin is still holding his hard lines. As online sportsbooks in Russia report, for Putin the whole process against the Russian athletes is just a politically motivated action.

The IOC according to Putin was pressured to implement one of the most expensive doping programs in history, which the Russians did not accept. The consequences are those that we are already familiar with: no blank ban for Russian athletes, but their participation depends on convincing the individual sport associations in their innocence.

More than half of the Russian athletes will participate in Rio2016

As sites dealing with internet betting in Brazil report, Putin claimed that the medals that will be won on the Olympics in Rio will be disvalued due to the nonparticipation of Russian athletes. He also continued accusing the IOC as well as Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) for implementing double standards when the Russian athletes are concerned.

Yet, beside these claims there will still be Russian athletes in Rio. According to Alexander Zhukov, chief of the Olympic Committee of the country, there will be about 250 Russian athletes out of the planned 387 who will participate on the Rio Olympics. Some sports federations have completely banned Russian athletes, others did it partly while third have already given green light for their participation in Rio.

All Russian competitors from equestrian, shooting, judo, tennis and archery have been given permission to compete. The same is case with the Russia’s fencing, volleyball, and triathlon and table tennis squads. On the other side there will probably be no Russian athletes in the athletic program since IAAF has banned 67 out of the 68 athletes announced. One case is still under investigation.