42 Russian athletes to get compensation for missing Rio Olympics

A total of 42 leading Russian track and field athletes will be paid compensation from Russias Olympians Support Fund for missing the 2016 Olympic Games, President of the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) Dmitry Shlyakhtin said on Monday.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with participants in the 2016 Olympics on August 25 that the Olympians Support Fund would provide financial assistance to the athletes barred from the 2016 Olympic Games, reports Tass.

Only one Russian athlete, Darya Klishina, took part in the 2016 Olympic Games. The other 67 athletes were barred from the Rio Olympics as they were training for the competition in Russia, whose membership in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had been suspended due to allegations of state-controlled doping programme before the Rio Games.

"Financial compensation will be paid to 42 athletes and payments will be made to them simultaneously. The size of compensations will depend on the result a particular athlete could have achieved at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro," Shlyakhtin said.

"As for the size of compensations, I consider it incorrect to say what sum each will get. But I can say that that the leaders (four-five athletes) who would have competed for the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics will get a very good compensation," the ARAF chief added.

As the ARAF head said, the list of candidates for compensation was drawn up after the sports federations gave their proposals and the Fund approved them.

"There was not a case when at least one our proposal was rejected because we had submitted documents only for the worthy athletes," Shlyakhtin said.

--IANS

pur/vm