Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Russian athletes will be missing at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next year.

European Athletics president Svein Arne Hansen said does not expect Russia to return to international competition in time for next year’s Olympic Games.

Russian athletes were banned indefinitely by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) this year after a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report alleged widespread corruption and a state-sponsored drugs culture in a sporting superpower.

An IAAF inspection committee is due to visit Russia in January to oversee the country’s reform process and ensure the criteria set out by the sport’s ruling body are met.

The committee will report back to the IAAF Council at the earliest at its meeting in Cardiff, Wales, on March 27, less than five months before the Olympics.

“For the moment they have to fulfil the conditions, but I cannot really see them competing in Rio,” Hansen, whose body includes Russia as a member federation, told Athletics Weekly magazine on Tuesday.

“They must have a cultural change. They must get rid of all those people from before.”

European Athletics, which oversees the sport in Europe, works closely with the IAAF world governing body on doping and medical issues. Norwegian Hansen believes Russia will work hard to change the culture.

“We know some good people in Russian athletics and I’m sure they will be elected. We hope that some new people will come in who really understand that this must be changed,” he said.
*Reuters/NAN