Russian Athletes Banned From Rio Paralympics

07 Aug 2016 | tshego

Share on

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has confirmed that Russian athletes will not be eligible to compete at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

The announcement comes after the IPC opened suspension proceedings following the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) independent McLaren report which was published last month and detailed a state-sponsored doping programme operated by Russia.

Following the ban, Russia has said it will appeal the decision, with Russian Paralympic Committee president Vladimir Lukin telling Russian news agency Tass: “We will file a claim with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne immediately. We hope CAS will take a decision like the one on the Russian Olympians. So, it’s just the beginning,”

IPC president, Sir Philip Craven said at a news conference: “The anti-doping system in Russia is broken, corrupted and entirely compromised.

“The Russian Paralympic Committee are unable to ensure compliance with and enforcement of the IPC anti-doping code and the world anti-doping code within their own national jurisdiction and they cannot fulfil its fundamental obligation as an IPC member.

“As a result, the Russian Paralympic Committee is suspended with immediate effect.”

In contrast, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose not to ban Russia from the Olympic games following the report and opted to exclude only athletes with a history of prior doping offences and pass other judgements to international federations, with an IOC panel giving final clearance.

The McLaren report found Russia’s sports ministry manipulated urine samples between 2011 and 2015 and identified 27 samples relating to eight para-sports, five of which are summer sports.