Russian 800m runner and doping whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova has asked the International Olympic Committee to review its decision to ban her from competing at the Rio Games.
The IOC revealed on Sunday that its ethics board had declared Stepanova ineligible for Rio because all Russians who have served drugs bans in the past have been barred from next month's Games.
It also said the 30-year-old, who was forced to flee Russia in 2014 for speaking out against the country's state-run doping programme, could not compete as a "neutral athlete" as that was against Olympic rules.
But in a letter to the IOC's director general Christophe de Kepper, Stepanova and her husband Vitaly Stepanov, a former anti-doping expert who also revealed Russia's doping secrets, have restated her request to be allowed to run.
This request has already been supported by athletics' world governing body the IAAF and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
IOC president Thomas Bach told journalists on Sunday that the ethics commission had "appreciated" Stepanova's role in exposing the systemic cheating in Russia but could not ignore "what happened before" when she was part of the doping programme.
Instead of allowing her to run, said Bach, the IOC was happy to invite the Stepanovs to Rio as special guests in recognition of their "important role" in the fight against doping.
The decision to ban Stepanova from running, and yet invite her as a guest, was roundly criticised by anti-doping experts and investigative journalists who have heralded the Stepanovs' contribution to exposing what many believe to be sport's worst doping scandal.
"We have read (Sunday's) IOC media release attentively and cannot but be very disappointed that the IOC (executive board) has obviously not been given the correct information by the IOC ethics commission," the Stepanovs' letter to de Kepper said.
"We kindly ask you to forward to the IOC EB our request to review their decision on the basis of the information provided.
"We also would like to state that we never blew the whistle with the intent to getting a spectators' invitation to Rio.
"We have not asked for a favour, we have asked for a fair and ethical treatment.
"Having an ethical committee report untruthfully in spite of all the discussions being recorded, is something that we would never have conceived.
"We respectfully decline your invitation as spectators, but kindly ask you to give Yuliya the fair treatment she deserves."
Attached to the letter, as referenced above, is a three-page rebuttal of the ethics committee's ruling.
It explains that the 30-year-old Stepanova did not reject the chance to compete for Russia; Russia's Olympic chiefs, and other athletes rejected the idea of Stepanova competing for them.
They challenge the IOC's contention that "neutral athletes" are not permissible under the Olympic Charter when there is already a team of refugee Olympians proposed for Rio.
And they point out that banning all Russians who have already served doping sanctions is a clear case of "double jeopardy" that has already been successfully challenged in the courts.
The Stepanovs also detail how Stepanova immediately complied with the anti-doping authorities as soon as abnormalities in her biological passport were flagged up in January 2013.
She promptly admitted to taking prohibited substances between 2007-12, provided a written statement to WADA and served a two-year ban that expired in February 2015.
Full of remorse for taking drugs, although it is debatable how much choice she had given the state of Russian athletics, she also never asked for any reduction in her sentence, as was her right, for cooperating with the anti-doping authorities.
United States Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart described the IOC's stance on Stepanova as "incomprehensible" and said it would "undoubtedly deter whistleblowers in the future".
While WADA's director general Olivier Niggli said: "Stepanova was instrumental in courageously exposing the single biggest doping scandal of all time.
"WADA is very concerned by the message that this sends whistleblowers."
Hajo Seppelt, the German documentary-maker, went even further, telling Press Association Sport that the decision was "embarrassing" and had revealed Bach to be "spineless" and "hypocritical".
It was Seppelt who the Stepanovs took their story to when their attempts to get WADA to investigate from 2010 onwards came to nothing. In fact, Yuliya had been telling Vitaly, a Russian Anti-Doping Agency official, about the situation in the athletics programme from 2009.
"Without whistleblowers like the Stepanovs we will never be able to expose the corruption and doping in sports," said the multi-award winning Seppelt.
"Without people bravely coming forward to tell us what is really happening on the inside, it is almost impossible to get beyond the soapbox oratory of men like Bach.
"His treatment of Yuliya reveals that his real priority is not clean sport but keeping close to (Russian president) Vladimir Putin.
"And the double standard of excluding her from competition but inviting her to Rio shows that he wants to use her.
"Finding a better way to protect whistleblowers is the most important thing sport can do for cleaning up doping."
Stepanova, who forfeited a 2011 European Indoor bronze medal in 2013, returned to competition at the European championships in Amsterdam earlier this month but injured her foot and limped home to a standing ovation from the crowd.
In her testimony to the IOC ethics commission, Stepanova said: "I would really like to go to the Olympic Games - this would be all my joy.
"If I could go there, it would prove to me that I had taken the right decision and it would show an example to the other athletes that may find themselves in a similar situation as I was that it is necessary to say the truth, that one needs to fight the system.
"It would show that if they act with good intentions, they will be listened to and even the IOC will support them."
