Russian doping whistleblower given Olympics hope
By Mark Trevelyan VIENNA (Reuters) – Yulia Stepanova, the Russian former drugs cheat whose whistle blowing revelations helped expose the massive doping problem in her country, could be allowed to compete in the Rio Olympics as an independent athlete, the IAAF said on Friday. Stepanova, an 800-metres runner described as "a courageous athlete" by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), went into hiding after revealing the details of the problem, and now lives in the United States at a secret location. With the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) extending its ban on Russian athletes on Friday, and with her mother country highly unlikely to have selected her anyway, Stepanova was hoping to compete under the flag of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
