Russia avoids full ban from Rio Olympics
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The Russian Olympic team will avoid a full ban from the Summer Games in Rio starting next month despite revelations of a state-run doping system that stretches back to 2011.
In a press release, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was leaving the decision on whether to allow Russian athletes' participation up to individual sports federations. In other words, Russian athletes could still be barred from competing in Rio in specific sports, just not all of them at once.
The IOC laid out strict guidelines for allowing Russian athletes to compete still, stating: "all Russian athletes seeking entry to the Olympic Games Rio 2016 are considered to be affected by a system subverting and manipulating the anti-doping system."
The IOC statement added: "Under these exceptional circumstances, Russian athletes in any of the 28 Olympic summer sports have to assume the consequences of what amounts to a collective responsibility in order to protect the credibility of the Olympic competitions, and the 'presumption of innocence' cannot be applied to them."
Last week, Russia lost its appeal against the ban on its track and field athletes from competing in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the appeal by 68 Russian track and field athletes seeking to overturn the ban imposed by the IAAF following allegations of state-sponsored doping and cover-ups.
The Russian appeal was heard by a CAS panel on Tuesday.
The appeal questioned the validity of the IAAF decision and sought to ensure the participation in Rio of athletes who are not accused of any doping violation.
The ruling apparently failed to influence the decision on whether the entire Russian Olympic team should be banned from the games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) delayed a decision on that possible blanket ban last week, saying it needed more time to consider its legal options.
CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reported that, while the IOC has generally shied away from complete bans on nations competing in the past, it came under huge pressure by other nations to ban Russia due to the wide scale of the state-sponsored doping program first revealed by The New York Times and CBS News' own "60 Minutes."
Two whistle-blowers -- a former Russian gold medal-winning track star and her husband, who worked at the country's anti-doping lab -- detailed for "60 Minutes" the system under which steroids were provided, and tainted urine samples were swapped for clean ones.