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IOC Bans Russian Sports Officials From Rio, Delays Athlete Ruling

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has barred Russian sports officials from receiving official accreditation to attend the upcoming Olympic Games, a statement released on the IOC website read Tuesday.

Staff from the Russian Sports Ministry and any other person implicated in the report will be subject to the ban, the IOC said.

The IOC also announced that it would delay its ruling on whether Russian athletes could compete at the Games until the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) had announced its judgement on Thursday, July 21. The court is currently considering an appeal against the ban of Russian track-and-field athletes from international competition.

The decision follows calls from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday to ban the entire Russian team from participating in the Olympics this summer.

The IOC also announced a number of other emergency measures, such as refusing to support any sporting events held in Russia and urging all international Olympic Winter Sports Federations to avoid holding events in the country. The moves are to remain in place until Dec. 31, 2016.

WADA will be asked to convene an “Extraordinary World Conference on Doping” in 2017 to “review” the current anti-doping system, the statement said.

An independent commission for WADA announced in a report Monday that it had found evidence that the Russian government sponsored and covered up a doping program for their athletes during the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The Kremlin has denied the claims, calling WADA's announcement “political.”


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