ROC president accuses IAAF, CAS of discrimination against Russian athletes
MOSCOW. July 27 (Interfax) - The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in June took a discriminatory decision by making training abroad one of the conditions for admitting Russians to the Olympics, Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov said.
"At the IOC Executive Board meeting I spoke, among other things, of the CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport] ruling, and that we'd never agree to discrimination against Russian athletes when the federation's [IAAF] decision upheld by the court [CAS] ruling effectively forces them to live and train abroad," Zhukov said on the Rossiya-24 television channel.
In its July 19 ruling the CAS noted that Russian athletes could not possibly comply with the IAAF requirement for them to have lived and trained abroad for several years in order to be admitted to Olympics, Zhukov said.
"Nevertheless, the court did make such a decision [by rejecting the lawsuit against IAAF]. In my view, one that is completely unobjective and wrong. Basically, the court said in its ruling that the international federation may set whichever rules it wants for admitting athletes to Olympic Games," the ROC president said.
The CAS ruling cannot be challenged but Russian track and field athletes have chances of winning their cases if they file individual lawsuits with civil courts, he said.
"They suffered damage, both moral and material. They were barred from competitions. In my view, this reason is serious enough for going to the court," Zhukov said.
