Two race walkers have become the first Russian athletes to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against being denied the right to compete at the Rio Olympics.
A similar appeal has also been launched by the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF).
This follows the decision last week by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to continue its suspension of the national governing body.
Only Russian athletes who can prove they have operated in an effective testing system will be able to compete internationally at events including the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
This requirement, in practice, means eligibility is limited to those Russian athletes based outside the country.
Race walkers Denis Nizhegorodov and Svetlana Vasilyeva each argue that a ban on the entire team is overly unfair.
“Competing at the Olympics is the main goal and main honour,’’ said Nizhegorodov in comments posted on the website of agent Andrei Mitkov.
“Now they want to take away my chance to compete at the Olympics, even though I haven’t done anything to cost me a place in Rio,’’ added Vasilyeva.
“From bitter experience I understand that you can’t wait and hope for a good result — you have to act.’’
Nizhegorodov won a silver medal in the 50-kilometre race at Beijing 2008 before taking bronze four years later in London.
Vasilyeva is a rising star who won the European under-23 Championship title in 2013.
But both trained under Viktor Chegin, the notorious race walking coach of more than 20 athletes disqualified for doping offences who was banned for life from all sport-related activities in February.
Nizhegorodov was also among 14 Russians to test positive following re-analysis of Beijing 2008 doping samples, although his B-test returned negative.
A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report last week specially highlighted race walking when pointing-out how problems remain with Russian drug testing procedures.
Fifteen competitors at February’s Russian National Walking Championship in Sochi either did not start, withdrew or were disqualified after being alerted to the presence of drug testers.
The IAAF claim that, because of the absence of effective testing, Russian-based athletes cannot be considered clean even if they have never failed a test.
Both athletes claim they will reject any opportunity to compete independently under the Olympic flag.
This is currently seen as the only way Russian athletics team members could compete, if the IAAF does accept them.
“I’m a citizen of Russia, a great sports power. I don’t agree with competing under the Olympic flag,’’ Nizhegorodov said.
More appeals can be expected, with two-time Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva having also vowed to appeal to a Human Rights court.
But CAS President and International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice-president has described the Russian testing system as “rotten to the core’’ last week.
He had suggested that CAS would not view the appeals sympathetically.
More discussions on Russian participation are expected to take place on Tuesday at Lausanne in Switzerland at an Olympic Stakeholders Summit.
