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Russian, Kenyan athletes face Rio 2016 evaluation

Russian and Kenyan athletes will only be allowed to compete at Rio 2016 after undergoing individual evaluations to prove they have not doped.

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Athletes from Russia and Kenya will have to be individually evaluated by the international federations of their respective sports before being declared eligible to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach announced the measures at a media conference following a summit in Lausanne.

Russia and Kenya have both been declared "non-compliant" with the World Anti-Doping Agency's anti-doping code and Bach said the IOC had "very serious doubts" over the presumption of innocence for athletes from these countries.

The IOC confirmed its backing for the IAAF decision to keep Russia's track and field suspension in place with the Games less than two months away. However, the resolutions agreed at the Olympic summit clear the way for Russian athletes deemed clean by the IAAF to compete in Rio.

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Russian Olympic Committee president Aleksander Zhukov earlier confirmed that clean athletes from the country would appeal the IAAF ban, which he described as "legally indefensible" to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

An IOC statement read: "The Olympic Summit unanimously agreed on the following actions:

"1. To fully respect the decision of the IAAF Council with regard to the specific situation of track and field in Russia as outlined in the report and recommendations of the IAAF Task Force. The Olympic Summit appreciates the IAAF acknowledgement of "the enormous efforts and professionalism of (…) the Russian Olympic Committee", which led to "significant progress towards satisfaction of the verification criteria to date".

"2. The IFs [international federations] and NOCs [national Olympic committees] to undertake all efforts to keep doped athletes away from the Olympic Games Rio 2016. This requires IFs in particular to take swift action to suspend all athletes who have infringed anti-doping rules following the re-testing programme of samples from the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

"3. All NOCs and IFs should sanction not only doped athletes, but also their coaches, officials, doctors or any other persons implicated. They should in addition not request accreditation for the Olympic Games for any person currently implicated in an anti-doping rule violation. The IOC to take appropriate measures to the same effect.

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"4. Because of the WADA non-compliance declaration of Kenya and Russia and the related substantial allegations, the Olympic Summit considers the "presumption of innocence" of athletes from these countries being put seriously into question.

"As a result, every IF should take a decision on the eligibility of such athletes on an individual basis to ensure a level playing field in their sport. In this decision-making process, the absence of a positive national anti-doping test should not be considered sufficient by the IFs.

"This means that the respective IF should take into account other reliable adequate testing systems in addition to national anti-doping testing. This decision about the "level playing field" in each of their very different Olympic sports, and eligibility, including of their member national federations, should be taken by each IF taking into account all the specific circumstances in the relevant national federations, any available evidence, the World Anti-Doping Code and the specific rules of their sport.

"5. To fully review the anti-doping system by requesting WADA to convene an "Extraordinary World Conference on Doping" in 2017. The Olympic Summit on 8 October 2016 to propose further measures for debate at this conference. This will in particular include the reinforcement of the request issued by the Olympic Summit on 17 October 2015 to make the entire anti-doping system independent from sports organisations."

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