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Russian Federation says 272 athletes approved for Rio

“We would like to highlight the extremely shocking and disappointing statistics regarding the Russian weightlifters”, the statement added.

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The IWF said Friday the multiple cases of doping by Russian weightlifters have “seriously damaged” the integrity of the sport. It called the punishment an “appropriate sanction” to “preserve the status of the sport”.

“Both swimmers request CAS to declare the decision of the International Olympic Committee executive board of July 24 2016 invalid and unenforceable”, said a CAS statement.

Aside from athletics, where all bar Florida-based Darya Klishina have been banned from competing at Rio, weightlifting is the only other sport to exclude all Russians after each individual governing body was asked to make a call on a sport-by-sport basis.

Hours after the plane carrying the Russian team took off, the track and field team gathered across town in a small stadium for what was billed as an Olympic consolation event. Among those banned, Artem Okulov is a world champion while Ruslan Albegov took a bronze medal at the 2012 London Games and Tatiana Kashirina a silver.

Russian Federation will join Bulgaria in having no weightlifters allowed to compete at Rio 2016.

Tests conducted by the Russian anti-doping agency, which is suspended following repeated allegations of cover-ups, are not considered valid for Olympic purposes.

Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko on July 29 said that 272 of the country’s 387 Olympic athletes had been cleared to go by worldwide federations that govern individual sports, and the number could rise. However, that recommendation was shot down by the International Olympic Committee last week.

More than 100 athletes from what was originally a 387-strong team have been barred from competing in Rio by worldwide sports federations under sanctions which most Russian athletes consider unfair.

Isinbayeva said there was still hope by the end of Thursday that she would be cleared for participation in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

The country had earlier been expecting nearly three-quarters of its Olympic team to go to Rio, with the Russian Sports Ministry producing a report claiming 286 members of what had been an nearly 400-strong team would be there.

Controversy ignited on Wednesday over working conditions for labourers racing to fix shambolic conditions at the athletes’ Village in Rio just nine days before the Olympics.

“I’ve won medals because people have been banned and I know some people after the recent tests have been moved from fourth to gold”.

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The latest doping scandal to rock Olympic and Russian sport was triggered this month by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren whose report for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) detailed an elaborate doping system directed by the Moscow sports ministry and used in more than 30 sports over four years.

Artem Okulov