Putin blames ‘meddling’ politicians as list of banned Russian athletes exceeds 100

Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Wednesday with his country’s Olympic athletes — many of whom have been banned from the 2016 Summer Games — telling them “we see that short-sighted politicians have started meddling in sport.”

His comments followed an announcement from international rowing officials that 17 more Russians will be barred from Rio de Janeiro.

That means more than 100 of the 387 athletes named to the country’s team have been deemed ineligible, with more names expected to join the list.

“All of you here trained long and hard over the last four years to get ready for this big event, and you all deserved the right to defend Russia’s sporting honor,” Putin told his depleted team at the Grand Kremlin Palace. “This current situation has gone beyond the legal field now and has even gone beyond the bounds of common sense.”

Over the past year, Russia has been hit with repeated allegations of a vast doping scheme involving athletes, coaches and officials. The entire track team was provisionally suspended from competition last year.

Though the International Olympic Committee declined to issue a blanket ban on Russia, it gave the international federations that govern each sport a number of strict guidelines for determining which athletes should be allowed to compete.

Some federations have determined that Russians are eligible for Rio; the fencing team was given clearance on Wednesday. But other sports have been excluding athletes on a case-by-case basis.

Track accounts for almost 70 and swimming has barred seven. Canoe, sailing and modern pentathlon also have excluded athletes.

Including previously announced bans, 22 of Russia’s 28 rowers and coxswains have been denied eligibility. Most are not formally accused of doping but failed to meet IOC standards that now force them to prove they are clean.

Putin said, “This campaign that targets our country’s athletes includes the use of notorious double standards and the principle of collective responsibility, or, as was said, ‘reversal of the presumption of innocence,’ which is not compatible with sport and not compatible with justice and basic legal norms in general.”

His country’s track team recently appealed its suspension but lost in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Other athletes are expected to mount legal challenges.

The international court has announced that — for the first time in Olympic history — it will open two temporary offices at the site of the Games to handle doping-related matters.

david.wharton@latimes.com

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