After a lot of the Russian athletes were banned from the Rio Olympics 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin fights for his people. He believes they have been blatantly discriminated for banning many of his players for the Olympics.
Out of the 68 strong and eligible Russian athletics team, 67 of them were rejected by the International Association of Athletics Federations. The disqualification was due to previous drug violations made by the athletes or among those included in the report of state-sponsored doping, as reported by The Guardian.
Russian President Vladimir Putin then expressed his disappointment while speaking to the athletes in Kremlin. He believes that the decision made was an attempt by the Federations to bring the rules of the political world to the sporting world.
Putin also claims that the absence of the Russian athletes, belonging to the largest country in the world, would practically weaken the competition. With the Russian athletes out of the race, other competitors would be taken out of the real essence of the competition itself. He also claims that the decision was a "deliberate campaign targeting our athletes," according to BBC News.
In total, there are practically 108 Russians banned from joining the Rio Olympics to be held next month. However, out of the 387 athletes that Russia intended to send, 250 of them are still able to join the competition, to start on August 5.
Some of the Russian fencers, volleyball players, and triathletes are still eligible to join the competition. In fact, there was a report made by the International Triathlete Union (ITU) stating that none of the Russian triathletes are in league with those disqualified to join the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Among others permitted to compete are also the players for equestrian, shooting, judo, tennis and archery. The IAAF also chose to ban the Russian athletes for track and field unless they meet the standards for their strict criteria in drug violation.
