RIO DE JANEIRO _ The surprise reinstatement of Russian long jumper Darya Klishna to compete in the 2016 Olympics deepens a profound doping crisis that has tainted the global competition and its organizers.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday overturned a last-minute ban on Klishna, who going into the Games had been the only member of Russia's banned track and field team who had been allowed to compete in Rio.
Three days before the start of the long jump competition, however, the International Association of Athletics Federations announced on Saturday that the 25-year-old Russian wouldn't compete after all.
The federation held that even though she lived outside Russia _ Klishma lives and trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. _ her doping samples were subject to the same state-sponsored manipulation by Russia. On Monday, the arbitration body disagreed.
"Relevantly, the Athlete established that she was subject to fully compliant drug-testing in- and out-of-competition outside of Russia for the 'relevant period,' " the Switzerland-based court ruled.
The ruling was just the latest drama in a twist involving Russian athletes, a large number of whom were banned by varying sports federations after findings by the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency of state-sponsored cheating by Russia.
For many athletes, the absence of a large and traditional power in track and field has put an asterisk on the Rio Games.
"We talk about it. It unfortunate what's happening," said Gabriela Tenorio, a sprinter from Ecuador, who added that international competition "is in crisis" because of pervasive doping scandals.
These Olympics mark an important first, since the arbitration court that ruled on the Russian long jumper was tasked with publishing doping findings in an attempt to have greater independence from the governing bodies of sport.
"Besides the Olympic Committee of Russia I am not aware of integrity issues regarding other committees. I believe that overall confidence in doping checks remains unshaken," said Marcelo Franklin, a Brazilian lawyer who defends athletes accused of doping. He noted the relatively small number of doping findings so far.
From the swimming pool to the 100-meter dash, however, everyone seems to be talking about doping.
U.S. swimmer Lilly King drew headlines for her finger-wagging accusations last week against Russian Yulia Efimova, who lives and trains in the United States. King won gold over her Russian adversary, and also suggested that U.S. sprinter Justin Gatlin shouldn't be competing because of two past doping violations and punishment"
"Really?" asked Kirani James, Grenada's silver-medal-winning, 400-meter runner, who said he was unaware of King's comment but added the rules allow for Gatlin's return.
"If the rule says you are banned for life, or you get four years, then that's the rules and we have to abide by it," James, who trains at the University of Alabama, told McClatchy.
When Gatlin entered the Olympic Stadium Sunday night for his 100-meter showdown with Jamaican Usain Bolt, he was greeted with long booing. It grew louder when he was introduced before the final, in which he won silver, finishing a fraction of a second behind Bolt.
"They don't know Justin Gatlin," he said afterward, shrugging off crowd discontent for his past doping violations.
Even multiple medalist Michael Phelps weighed in on the matter Sunday, using his last question at his final press conference as an athlete to call for changes.
"Something needs to change, and I believe something will change in the next four years leading to Tokyo," said Phelps, adding that rare is a swimming final without a positive test for some banned substances.
The first bans of the 2016 Olympics include:
_Chinese swimmer Chen Xinyi. The 18-year-old swims the 100-meter butterfly and 50-meter freestyle, and tested positive last week for hydrochlorothiazide. It's a medicine used to treat high blood pressure but is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency because it can serve as a masking agent to shield use of other banned substance.
_Polish weightlifter Tomasz Zielinksi, who competed in the 94 kg category, was kicked out of the Rio Games last week for testing positive for 19-Norandrosterone, a potent anabolic steroid barred from use in sports for three decades.
_Silvia Danekova, a Bulgarian 3000m steeplechase athlete, was declared ineligible after testing positive for EPO CERA. It's a sophisticated new form of erythropoietin, a performance-enhancing drug often used by cyclers that increases endurance.
_Kenyan sprinting coach John Anzrah was sent home after allegedly posing as an athlete to give a urine sample. He told the Reuters news agency that he was wearing a borrowed credential to get a free breakfast, and signed doping paperwork as Ferguson Rotich in order to save the sprinter time.
The Bulgarian steeplechase runner's case is intriguing. She told Bulgarian media outlets that she tested negative in three of four tests, and insisted it must be a problem with the Brazilian laboratory conducting the tests. She called doping agency leaders a "mafia in white aprons."
Brazil's drug lab was decommissioned six weeks before the start of the Games, meaning thousands of blood and urine samples would have to be sent abroad.
Weeks later, however, the lab was reinstated after taking what the World Anti-Doping Agency called corrective action. The agency never detailed what had been lacking.
The weekly Brazilian news magazine Veja, citing anonymous sources in its July 27 editions, said the problem had been with a single operator who had programmed separate machines in the same way, resulting in conflicting positive and negative results. That's effectively what Danekova said happened in her case.
Canadian sprinter Aaron Brown took the doping scandals in stride.
"There is always going to be people trying to break the rules and search for shortcuts, and especially when there is a lot of money involved in big meets like the Olympics," he said.
Piotr Malachowski, a mountain-sized man who won the silver medal in discus for Poland, said sponsors should shun athletes who have used performance-enhancing drugs.
"The media must change, the sponsors must change, and people must change," said Malachowski, who trains in the San Diego area. "Everybody wants to win. There is money."
