The entire 387-person Russian team will be banned from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, according to reports being made by The Mail on Sunday.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are reportedly set to hand down a judgement that will see all members of the Russian team banned as a result of the nation’s state-sponsored doping program.
The story of Russian doping has been emerging more and more over the past two years, with reports that the government sports ministry gave players illegal substances and covered up positive drug tests results on an large scale.
This is believed to have occurred extensively during the London 2012 Olympics and it had been reported that more than 600 positive drug samples have been covered up, at a minimum.
The IOC has already moved to ban Russia’s track and field team but it now seems that the nation will be prevented from competing in any facet of the Olympics.
Some Russian athletes who train outside of Russia and have not worked with the government’s sports ministry may still be allowed to compete at the games, if they successfully plead their case.
The Mail on Sunday is reporting that it was told this by an ‘Olympic insider’:
“The IOC want to ban Russia to show [doping] is an assault on the whole of sport.
“That effectively means expulsion from Rio. But Thomas Bach (the IOC president) also wants to give consideration to the rights of individuals.”
There have also been calls to ban all Russian athletes from the 2018 Winter Olympics, to be held in South Korea.
The decision, if it does indeed come to pass, will be a significant moment in the history of the Olympic games.
With less than two weeks to go before the games begin in Rio in August 5, it appears there is still much more of this story left to unfold.
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