Russian Olympic Taekwondo team approved for Rio

The World Taekwondo Federation has cleared the Russian team to compete in the upcoming Olympic games.

Amid reports alleging that Russia took part in a massive state-sponsored doping program and cover-up, there was much speculation that the entire country would be banned from competing in the upcoming 2016 Rio Olympics at the recommendation of the World Anti-Doping Agency. However, that recommendation was shot down by the International Olympic Committee last week. Instead, the IOC ruled that they would leave it up to the individual international sports federations to determine whether to approve each athlete or ban them based on past doping offences or their involvement in the scandal.

While over 110 out of 387 members of the Russian team have already been handed bans, including six out of 17 cyclists, you can now count Russia’s Taekwondo team among those that will be competing in the Summer Games. As reported by Sportsnet.ca, the head of the Russian Taekwondo Union, Anatoly Terekhov, confirmed to Russian agency R-Sport that he received a letter from the World Taekwondo Federation and that “we were told that all three of our athletes have officially been admitted to compete in the Olympic Games.”

The Taekwondo team joins Russia’s badminton, volleyball, and tennis teams, among others, that have been fully cleared to compete. We await announcements on a few remaining teams. We should have a a definitive answer on the eligibility of the remaining Russian athletes soon as the Russian Olympic Committee has said that they will announce their final line-up on July 30-31, with the Games’ opening ceremonies set to take place on August 5th.

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