Russia's Efimova First To Appeal Rio Olympic Ban

The legal battle to compete in next month's Olympics has begun as Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova was the first to appeal her exclusion from the Rio Games by swimming body FINA, acting on criteria set out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC declined to impose a blanket ban on Russian competitors over state-run doping, a decision which was met with fierce criticism elsewhere with Olympic chiefs branded "spineless" Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova became the first athlete to announce she would appeal against her ban from next month’s Rio Games over doping.

Thirteen individual Russian athletes have so far been excluded from the Rio Games — seven swimmers, two weightlifters, a wrestler and three rowers –- after the International Olympic Committee declined to issue a blanket ban.

In one of the most momentous moves in its long, chequered history, the IOC left it to each international sports federation to decide if Russians could take part after they were accused of state-sponsored doping.

The decision, which came after the World Anti-Doping Agency uncovered evidence of a widespread, government-backed drugs cheating system in Russia, divided world sport and drew accusations Olympic chiefs were “spineless”.

Swimming governing body FINA banned seven Russian swimmers on Monday, making it the first international federation to impose sanctions in light of Sunday’s IOC decision.

Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev, both 4x100m freestyle bronze-medal winners with the Russian team at the 2012 Olympics, and Efimova, another 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, were among the seven banned.

Efimova, 24, a four-time world breaststroke champion, whose provisional ban for testing positive for meldonium was overturned by FINA in May, will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), her agent Andrei Mitkov told R-Sport news agency.

Other international federations now face a race against the clock with the opening ceremony only 11 days away, global sport sharply divided and some Russian competitors already in Brazil.

Officially 10 Russian competitors were sidelined from the Rio Games on Monday over past doping offences with two weightlifters and a freestyle wrestler also banned, joining the 67 track and field athletes already barred from international competition by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF)

Dmitry Svishchev, who heads the lower house of Russian parliament's sports and physical culture committee, said the IOC decision was "not bad".

But he railed against the fact that Russian athletes who served doping bans in the past would be barred from Rio under the new IOC criteria, especially when drug cheats from other countries who had served their suspensions were allowed to go

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