Official FEI statement on WADA and IOC position

01.08.2016 11:48

Offical statement from FEI President Ingmar De Vos:

“The FEI fully supports the IOC Executive Board decision. We will of course implement the conclusions and directives from the IOC, and will continue to adhere to the WADA Code as we always have done.

“Equestrian is a low-risk sport for human doping. Equestrian is not implicated in the McLaren Report and we also have confirmation from the IOC that there have been no equestrian positives in the re-testing of athletes from Beijing 2008 and London 2012. WADA has no cases against Russian athletes in equestrian sport so we have no objective reason at all to prevent Russian equestrian athletes going to the Games.

“None of the five athletes on the Rio sport entries have had any previous doping offence, either internationally or nationally, and the FEI has now submitted the list of eligible Russian equestrian athletes and related documentation to the IOC. The IOC will act as the liaison between the CAS expert and the FEI.

“The five horse/rider combinations confirmed by the FEI for Rio are: Dressage – Inessa Merkulova with the horse Mister X; Marina Aframeeva and Vosk; Eventing – Aleksandr Markov and Kurfurstin; Andrey Mitin with Gurza; and Evgeniya Ovchinnikova and Orion.

“The FEI has a policy of zero tolerance to any form of doping in equestrian sport and any athletes found to be in breach of either the WADA Rules for humans or the FEI’s own Equine Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication Rules for horses will be prosecuted.”

Author: Edition