Volleyball body gives green light to Russia’s Rio squad

Lausanne, July 27 (IANS) The International Federation of Volleyball (FIVB) announced on Wednesday that it cleared all players from the Russian team for participation in the Rio Olympic Games starting on August 5.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission, chaired by Canadian sports law professor Richard McLaren, released a report last week on Monday on the results of its probe into the accusations of doping and manipulation of tests by Russian athletes and officials at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, reports TASS.

The report states that the commission’s investigation registered a total of 643 cases of Disappearing Positive Test Results in Russia between 2012 and 2015 involving athletes from 30 sports. Eight cases were referred to Russian players in volleyball and two in beach volleyball.

"The FIVB has submitted the names of the Russian volleyball and beach volleyball athletes to the IOC and CAS for approval," the statement from the volleyball federation said.

"The FIVB has conducted a full examination of the Olympic eligibility of each player submitted by the Russian Volleyball Federation in accordance with the IOC Executive Board’s decision on Sunday, July 24," it added.

The statement continued: "It is important to re-emphasize that the FIVB has zero-tolerance towards doping and has total confidence in its anti-doping system.

"The FIVB is 100% committed to protecting clean athletes and will take immediate action to suspend any athletes who have infringed anti-doping rules."