CHEBOKSARY, Russia — A top Russian track and field official says banning the country’s athletes from the Olympics will inflict severe financial damage on the games.
Russia was suspended by the IAAF in November, and the ban was upheld on Friday in a vote which appeared to have the backing of the International Olympic Committee.
All-Russia Athletics Federation general secretary Mikhail Butov says the absence of star Russians like pole vault world-record holder Yelena Isinbayeva and world 110-meter champion Sergei Shubenkov will hit the IOC in the pocket.
Butov says Russian stars are “a big part of world athletics and the competitions, the business, the incomes will all lose from their absence.”
Athletics will also become less significant “in society on a global scale,” he warns.
