Doping whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova has criticised the "unfair" decision by the International Olympic Committee to ban her from the Rio Olympics and plans to contest the ruling.
The IOC's ethics board declared the 30-year-old ineligible for Rio because all Russians who have served drugs bans in the past have been barred from next month's Olympics, also ruling her out of competing under a neutral flag.
In a statement, 800m runner Stepanova claimed that the IOC decision was "based on wrong and untrue statements", would put off future whistleblowers from coming forward, and contradicted previous decisions by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Stepanova and her husband Vitaly Stepanov, a former anti-doping expert who also revealed Russia's doping secrets, have restated her request to be allowed to run in a letter to the IOC's director general Christophe de Kepper.
Written by
Giuseppe Labellarte
Giuseppe Labellarte
