Report: Antidoping officials will seek to ban Russia from Rio Olympics
By Brad Weiss
Officials from ten countries are trying to get Russia banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics.
With only weeks left until the 2016 Olympics kick off in Rio de Janeiro, Russia finds itself in more trouble. A month after having their track and field team banned from competing in the games, the nation could see all their athletes barred from competing.
In June, the International Association of Athletics Federations, which is the world’s track and field governing body, unanimously voted to ban Russia’s track and field team from competing in this year’s games. The ban was due to the nation’s inability to reform their doping policies.
According to Rebecca R. Ruiz of the The York Times, officials from ten countries, along with 20 athlete groups, will request the entire nation of Russia be banned from the Rio games. The ten countries include the United States, Germany, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, and Canada.
Russia responded to the request by saying that it is the Western countries way of making a smear-campaign against them.
This all started when Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, who used to head Russia’s anti-doping labratory, revealed that the nation cheated in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. An investigation found that almost half of the medals won by the country were won by athletes who used performance-enhancing drugs.
If the nation of Russia is held out of the 2016 Olympics, it will be a black-eye for the games. In 2012, Russia finished third overall in medal count in London, picking up 82 total medals. Their total only ranked behind the United States (104), and China (88).
The 2016 Rio Olympics will kick off on August 5, and will run until August 21. There will be 207 nations competing, with over 10,000 athletes trying to win the gold medal in 306 events.
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