Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that 272 of the country’s athletes had been approved by global sports federations, out of an original team of 387, adding that the number could rise.
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Besides 67 track and field athletes banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) over revelations of a state-run doping scheme, dozens more have been told not to compete in Brazil, including swimmers, rowers, and wrestlers.
Weightlifting became the second sport after track and field to issue blanket bans on Russian athletes.
Over 100 Russian athletes have so far been banned from the Games after the World Anti-Doping Agency uncovered an elaborate doping system directed by Russia’s sports ministry across more than 30 sports.
In an interview with Reuters outside the new laboratory, a remote five-story building on the island campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Radler said a security force of about 50 people, including military police and private guards, will guard the almost 200 local and worldwide scientists and technicians who will conduct Olympic testing.
The compound contains 31 buildings and will accommodate 18,000 athletes and officials at the peak of the games, which open in a week.
A photo shows Australian athletes rested outdoors after evacuating from their apartments when a fire alarm was raised in their section of the Rio 2016 Olympic village on July 29, 2016.
“The hurdles that those Russian athletes who have been cleared to compete, the hurdles that they had to jump to be here are very strict and very high”.
The IOC executive committee decided not to ban the Russian team. “The miracle didn’t happen”.
World Rowing has barred 19 Russians, most for insufficient tests.
Russian Federation will join Bulgaria in having no weightlifters allowed to compete at Rio 2016. He added, however, that he was not sure how that compares to how often athletes from other countries get tested.
The International Weightlifting Federation announced in a statement on Friday that none of the eight Russian weightlifters will be permitted to participate in the Rio Olympics.
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“We have asked the IWF to clarify as soon as possible the situation of the classification of the London Games”.
