FISA Determines Six Russian Rowers meet conditions for participation in Rio 2016

For immediate release
26 July 2016, Lausanne, Switzerland

The FISA Executive Committee has made a final decision related to Russian participation for rowing in Rio 2016 in accordance with the IOC Executive Board’s decision, point 2.3.

IOC Decision, point 2.3 – “IFs should carry out an individual analysis of each athlete’s anti-doping record, taking into account only reliable adequate international tests and the specificities of the athlete’s sport and its rules, in order to ensure a level playing field”

Russia has qualified five boats and entered 26 rowers and two coxswains for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The athletes’ names were entered by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) by the deadline of 18 July 2016. Testing information collected from FISA, WADA, the Russian Rowing Federation (RRF), RUSADA and UK Anti-Doping shows that a total of 1679 blood and/or urine tests were carried out between 2011 and June 2016 on all Russian rowers. For the Russian rowers entered for Rio, 547 blood and urine tests were conducted since 2011. None of the 28 athletes entered on 18 July have tested positive in the last five years.All of these tests are fully documented in the WADA online documentation tool called ADAMS.

However, WADA’s Independent Person (IP) report reveals that the Moscow Laboratory was under the control of the Deputy Minister of Sport and was using the Disappearing Positive Methodology scheme to manipulate test results. It also states that the IP has “only skimmed the surface of the extensive data available.” Therefore,  the FISA Executive Committee reviewed each entered Russian rower in order to assess the adequacy and reliability of their “international” testing (the analysis of the samples performed at a WADA accredited lab other than Moscow), taking into account the specificities of the sport of Rowing.

IOC Decision, point 4. “The IOC will accept an entry by the ROC only if the athlete’s IF is satisfied that the evidence provided meets conditions 2 and 3 above, and if it is upheld by an expert from the CAS list of arbitrators appointed by an ICAS Member”

The FISA Executive Committee, due to the manipulation of the Moscow Laboratory tests, has determined, based on the assessment of independent testing of all rowers, the following will be permitted to enter:

CHAUKIN, Aleksandr

EFREMENKO, Georgy

KOSOV, Artem

MORGACHEV, Nikita

RYABCEV, Vladislav

ZARUTSKIY, Anton

The remaining 17 entered rowers and two coxswains (besides the three rowers revealed yesterday) are not at all considered to have participated in doping, but do not meet the conditions established by the IOC in their decision of 24 July 2016 for participation in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Effect of this decision

The effect of this decision is that Russia has six remaining eligible rowers – one lightweight and five open weight men – for competition in Rio 2016.

Therefore, four Russian boats (LM4-, LW2x, M8+ and W8+) will be withdrawn from participation in the Games and will be attributed to the next placing crews at the 2016 Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, as follows:

LM4- to Greece, the Hellenic Rowing Federation

M8+ to the Italian Rowing Federation

W8+ to the Australian Rowing Federation

And in the 2016 European Continental Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland:

LW2x to the Italian Rowing Federation

Russia has the possibility to form a men’s four (M4-) with the eligible six rowers for competition in Rio 2016. We await the Russian Rowing Federation’s decision on this possibility.

Any issues with the Russian participation at the Paralympic Games will be dealt with at a later date.

FISA Executive Committee, 26 July 2016