(ATR) Vladimir Putin is doing his part to try and boost the spirits of the Russian athletes banned from the Rio Olympics.
During a send-off ceremony, the Russian president said the loss of the banned Russian athletes at the Rio Games will make competition "less intensive" and "devalue" the medal events.
"It is obvious that the absence of Russian athletes, the leaders in many sports events, significantly reduces the intensity of the competition, and hence makes the upcoming events less spectacular," Putin said during Wednesday's eventat the Grand Kremlin Palace’s Alexander Hall.
"I think that your colleagues from other world’s leading sports powers also understand that the quality of their medals will be different, because it's one thing to defeat an equal, strong opponent, and quite another - to compete with obviously weaker opponents," said the Russian president. "Such victory has a very different taste or maybe bad taste."
The ceremony was attended by numerous Russian athletes that have been barred from the Rio Games amid a state-sponsored doping scandal and sanctions imposed by the international federations.
"The recent smear campaign aimed at Russian sports and athletes is riddled with double standards and goes beyond common sense,’ said the Russian president, who previously advised that he will not attend the opening ceremony in Rio.
"Short-sighted politicians cannot even leave sports alone despite the fact that it brings people together and eliminates existing contradictions between the countries," Putin said.
Outspoken Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva – who lost her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to compete in Rio – addressed Putin and her fellow Russian athletes encouraging those headed to Brazil to fight for the country’s honor.
Fighting back tears, the three-time Olympic pole vault medalist said that she and other athletes were banned from the Rio Games "in a rude manner and without giving us a chance to defend ourselves."
"Today, we are dealing with lawlessness, injustice and willfulness of certain people in world sport who do what they like," Isinbayeva said, speaking to Putin at the meeting.
"Let all pseudo clean foreign athletes understand that all this is a mug’s game," Isinbayeva, who has never failed a drug test, said to her fellow athletes.
"We believe in you – I wish you good luck, success and confidence in your own abilities," said the four-time Olympian. "Let your performance make the world shudder so that the Russian national anthem sounds constantly at sport arenas in Rio."
Putin added that the recent doping sanctions could "pose a threat to the principles of equality and mutual respect of the rights of the so-called clean athletes."
"In fact, this is a revision or an attempted revision of the original ideas put forward by Pierre de Coubertin - the founder of the modern Olympic movement," he said. "In fact this is a blow to all international sports and the Olympic Games in general."
Russians to Compete at Stars 2016 Tournament
While Russian track and field athletes will not be permitted to run, jump and throw in Rio, they will have the chance to compete at a domestic meeting organized by the internationally suspended All-Russian Athletics Federation.
According to Russian athletics head coach Yuri Borzakovsky, the Stars 2016 Tournament will be staged in Moscow at Znamensky Brothers stadium on Thursday, July 28,
"About 135 track-and-field athletes are going to compete," Borzakowsky told the Russian news agency Tass. "They include Olympic champions and medal holders as well as less renowned athletes forbidden to compete in Rio."
"Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva will not compete," Borzakowsky noted. "She has decided to have a rest after such a hard season."
Russian track and field athletes who will compete include 110-meter hurdles world champion Sergei Shubenkov, Olympic high jump champion Ivan Ukhov and Maria Kuchina, javelin throwers Dmitry Tarabin and Vera Rebrik, and triple jumper Yekaterina Koneva.
Written by Brian Pinelli
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