Who needs the Olympics anyway? Russia hosts meet for banned runners

The Russian track and field team is banned from the Rio Olympics so the country decided to host an alternative competition. Held on Thursday, the day the rest of Russia’s Olympic team departed for Rio, banned runners competed at the Stars 2016 Tournament.

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The Russian athletics team is banned from competing at the Olympics because of state-sponsored doping and tampering of urine samples. Other Russian teams are permitted to compete at the Rio Games after the International Olympic Committee decided against a blanket ban on the nation.

Most athletes who competed at the Stars 2016 event were wearing official team Russia gear, evident in the above video. According to The New York Times, athletes ran with race numbers that said “I run/jump/throw clean.”

Only one athlete, Darya Klishina, was granted admission to the Olympics because she demonstrated that she is clean. She is based in the United States. The U.S. has a more respected drug testing regimen which opened the door for Klishina, a long jumper, to get the go-ahead to compete in Rio.

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The Russian competition was held in Moscow at the 7,500-person Znamensky Brothers stadium. Approximately 135 Russian athletes competed at the event as an alternative to racing in Rio. According to CNN, 53 of those athletes were expected to be Rio-bound had the country’s track team not been banned from participation.

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The Olympics begin on Aug. 5 though much of the news coming out of Brazil has been out-of-competition related.