Russia’s track and field athletes are to file a class action with the court of arbitration for sport next week against the decision of the IAAF not to admit them to the 2016 Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee dealt Russia’s athletes a further blow when it endorsed the ban which was imposed after evidence was found of systematic doping in the country.
The secretary general of the All-Russian Athletics Federation, Mikhail Butov, told Tass: “A suit or suits will be submitted to Cas next week. It is also necessary to completely determine the legal direction, but we have generally formed a group of lawyers with whom we will work. Class actions will be filed for certain, but some individual suits are also possible.”
He added: “We are going to have consultations with these lawyers in the coming days. Then we will make the final decision.”
Last week the International Association of Athletics Federations voted to uphold the ban it had imposed last November over widespread state-sponsored doping.
The unprecedented step was taken after an expert task force ruled that Russia had not taken sufficient steps to overhaul its testing procedures and prove its athletes were clean. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, described the decision as “unjust and unfair”.
However, the IAAF said that, on the advice of outside lawyers, it had left open a “crack in the door” for Russian athletes who could prove they had been training outside the country to compete under a neutral banner, though there are understood to be only three or four athletes who meet that criterion.
