LONDON (SW): British newspaper The Mail on Sunday has reported that the entire Russian Olympic team will be banned from competing at the Rio Games next month.
According to well-placed sources, the newspapers has noted that the International Olympic Committee will punish all 387 Russian sportsmen and women in the strongest possible way after revelations of their country’s alleged state-sponsored doping program.
It added that the country’s ‘corrupt’ track and field stars have already been banned from the Games, and last week lost a desperate legal challenge to overturn that decision. According to The Mail, the ruling – the most momentous in Olympic history – will see Russia’s medal hopes in cycling, judo, wrestling and all other disciplines excluded from competition in the wake of the scandal.
The reports added that it is understood that the International Olympic Committee, led by Thomas Bach, will ask each international federation, the bodies responsible for individual Olympic sports, to examine the personal merits of potential Russian athletes, to assess whether they can compete as exceptional cases.
To this end, a small number of Russian athletes who train abroad, subject to stringent anti-doping procedures and demonstrably free of Russia’s sphere of corruption, may be offered a lifeline to compete in Rio under a neutral flag, it noted.
ENDS