Dear supporters all over the world, today's update with the following topics 1. We will not give up 2. Call for crowdfunding 3. A contribution to all supporters 4. Media release by Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov ☞1. We will not give up! It is final, Yuliya will not participate at the Olympic Games in Rio. The IOC did not even accept that I hand them over personally, the in the meantime more than 260’000 signatures of the petition. Yuliya and Vitaly informed me that the IOC did not respond at all to their second request to review the IOC’s decision. Lately, the have been approached by many media, asking them whether they would go to CAS and fight in court for Yuliya’s participation in Rio. They issued a media release which I attach below. The Stepanovs always accepted that it was the IOC’s decision to allow Yuliya compete and said that they would not go to court. With this, there is no more chance for Yuliya to compete in Rio as the IOC will not change their opinion. So, was our petition in vain? Did and does it matter at all?” YES, IT DOES MATTER! The writer Hermann Broch said that indifference is the biggest crime and I truly believe that he was right. You my friends, showed no indifference – and that made a difference. It made a great difference to Yuliya and Vitaly, who have sent us a great video thanking for your support and repeatedly wrote me to say how important it was to them to feel that they are not alone. They even mentioned our petition in their media release, which shows how important it is to them. And it made a difference to the IOC and to the Russian Sports Official. Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. And if this comes from sooooo many people, the voice is loud and clear. Our petition was commented and promoted all over the world, by some of the most prominent media there is. And if the difference we made is maybe not huge, it still is a difference that makes the world better. We shall keep this petition open until the day of the final of the 800 m women in Rio. Please talk to as many of your friends as possible, send twitter, facebook, etc. messages and ask everybody you know to sign the petition. The more signatures we have, the more we can remind the world on the day of the 800 meters that there is one person missing on the starting line, who should be there, Yuliya Stepanova. ☞☞2. Call for crowdfunding Allow me to address you with one more suggestion to make a difference. As many of you may know, the Stepanovs had to leave their home country, have to hide and have no support whatsoever from any of the sports organizations. As their work permits have not yet been issued, they depend on support from outside. Some of the great sports personalities of the world have come together and created a crowdfunding initiative that you can find under the following link: www.future-stepanov.com It is in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. If every of us just contributes a very little bit, we can make a huge difference. Let us stand together one more time and make a true difference! Imagine 250.000 people contributes only $1 or €1. That would be a fantastic signal. I'm personally in contact with the people organizing this crowdfunding, so I can assure you that the money will find its right way. I've already contributed and it would be great if you followed me. ☞☞☞3. A contribution to all supporters Let me thank you for your amazing support all over the world and let me also thank you in the name of Yuliya and Vitaly. You are the ones who really carry out the Olympic Spirit and that's great! Special thanks to my translators Julia Scheipl, Serge Amougou, Nina Holzschneider, Stephanie Jelks and to the whole team of change.org. I totally agree with the sport journalist Christoph Becker who commented in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (http://tinyurl.com/hpc3hmj): "Die Petition wird nichts bewirken, Julija Stepanowa wird nicht starten. Und doch steigt die Zahl ihrer Unterstützer noch immer um mehrere Hundert pro Stunde. Sie alle haben verstanden: Lasst das IOC im Hinterzimmer entscheiden, über Deals, deren Beweggründe niemand nachvollziehen kann, der sich nicht mit dem Mantra des Sportfunktionärs in den Schlaf murmelt: Mehr, mehr, mehr. Mehr Macht, mehr Geld, mehr Ich. Die Unterstützer der Familie Stepanow kehren diesem Zirkel den Rücken. Sie stimmen per Mausklick ab, von Jamaika bis Neuseeland, von Norwegen bis Südafrika. Es scheint, als gehe es dem olympischen Geist vergleichsweise gut. Er meidet offenkundig nur das Internationale Olympische Komitee. Ein cleveres Kerlchen ist das." ("The petition will not change the decision, Yuliya Stepanova will not participate. Nevertheless the number of supporters is still rising by several hundred per hour. They all have understood: Let the IOC decide behind closed doors, about deals, which reasons nobody can understand who is not familiar with the mantra of the sport functionaries: more, more, more. More power, more money, more me. The supporters of Stepanova turn their back on that. They vote with a mouse click, from Jamaica to New Zealand, from Norway to South Africa. It seems that the Olympic Spirit is still in quite a good shape. It obviously just avoids the IOC. It is a clever boy.") ☞☞☞☞4. Media release by Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov Statement of Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov to the media on 5 August 2016 We have been asked by many media whether Yuliya has filed an appeal or will file an appeal to CAS in the hope of overturning the IOC’s decision to not let her compete in Rio. These requests follow the recent decision of the CAS that the IOC's action in barring Russian athletes from competition because of a previous doping ban is unenforceable as it does not respect the athletes’ right of natural justice. The IOC previously determined that: “The ROC is not allowed to enter any athlete for the Olympic Games Rio 2016 who has ever been sanctioned for doping, even if he or she has served the sanction.” In our media release of 25 July we stated that Yuliya's status as an athlete who was formerly sanctioned for doping has no ethical or legal relevance to the decision on her application to compete, as the WADA Code fully contemplates athletes returning to competition following a sanction for doping. The CAS has previously ruled on this issue against the IOC (Rule 45 Case) in 2011, making it clear that imposing an additional ban on athletes for a previous doping violation is invalid and unenforceable. Hence, the most recent decision of the CAS did not come as a surprise to us. It proved once more that the decision of the IOC to deny Yuliya the right to participate as a neutral athlete itself violates principles of natural justice and does not follow any rationale except the desire to punish a fully credible whistleblower and protect and support athletes and officials that, according to the McLaren Report, cheated "beyond a reasonable doubt." We are disappointed that the IOC turned a blind eye to the risks Yuliya had to take, and the damage to her athletic career, to expose the systematic cheating in Russia and live up to the ideals expressed in the World Anti-Doping Code. For her to be called “not ethical enough for the Games” in the media release of the IOC on 24th of July is a tremendous blow. And even more, it was deeply disappointing that the so-called IOC "Ethics Commission” discredited Yuliya by providing untrue information in the very same press release. We believe that the IOC's focus on Yuliya's past sanction for doping shifts the spotlight away from the real issue, which is that the IOC took no action against Russia for punishing Yuliya for being a credible whistle-blower by refusing to put her on Russia's Olympic team. At no point did the IOC, unlike the IAAF, demand publicly from the Russian sports authorities that they recognise our whistle-blowing as an important and valuable contribution for clean sport in Russia. This amounts to political discrimination in direct violation of the Olympic Charter and was nowhere mentioned in the IOC's decision. Our disappointment and sadness is huge. We asked the IOC humbly that Yuliya, as she would never be nominated by the Russian Olympic Committee, be permitted to compete as a neutral athlete at the Games in Rio, in accordance with IAAF rules and the approval by IAAF. We did not ask for special treatment, as she is a fully qualified Olympic-caliber athlete. Instead, we asked that she be restored to the position she would have been in had she never risked everything by exposing Russia's state-dictated doping program. In addition, in spite of the clear statements of the Russian Olympic Committee and the Russian Athletics Federation to not nominate her for participation in the Games, Yuliya confirmed to the IOC Ethics Commission that she would be willing to compete under the Russian flag. While Russia was permitted to send hundreds of athletes to the Games, Yuliya's request was denied. Although we are heartbroken, we wish to clarify that we have from the beginning chosen to not follow a judicial path. We understand that the IOC has discretion to invite whomever they choose to the Games. We believe that in exercising this discretion to deny Yuliya a place in the competition, it sends a message that the World Anti-Doping Code and the values of Olympism are merely words on a page. As a result, we will not file an appeal to CAS. More than 250’000 people have signed a petition to ask the IOC to review their decision. We hope that even more will join that petition under https://www.change.org/u/44171830 in order to show the IOC that their decision is wrong and unfair. We do not feel, however, that fighting this through CAS is the path to take. Best regards Kaj Beuter