From Inside the Games
Yelena Isinbayeva is to travel here next Sunday (August 14) to campaign for election to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after a last ditch effort to be allowed to compete was rejected, she has announced.
The Russian had taken her case the Swiss Federal Court to have the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision which prevented her from competing at Rio 2016 overturned but it was rejected.
The two-time Olympic pole vault champion and Sergei Shubenkov, the world 110 metres gold medallist, had appealed against the decision of CAS, who had refused to lift an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspension on Russian athletes competing at Rio 2016.
It followed publication of two World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) reports which allegedly found evidence of state-supported doping in Russian athletics.
The appeal was rejected, however.
“Today I received another refusal – from the Swiss Federal Court this time,” Isinbayeva wrote on her Instagram account.
“I submitted a lawsuit to challenge the CAS decision and ask for a possibility to introduce temporary measures that would allow me to compete in the Olympics.
“Regretfully, my appeal was dismissed once again.
“My last hope to compete in the Olympics has vanished.”
