The fallout from Russia’s widespread performance-enhancing drug system for its athletes has reached the Paralympic Games.
The International Paralympic Committee said Sunday the Russian team had been banned from the Paralympics in retribution for the widespread doping found amongst Russian athletes.
Samples from athletes at the Paralympic Games in Sochi in 2014 were found to have disappeared in an investigation by an anti-doping investigator in July. The disappearance of the Paralympic athletes’ samples were part of the investigation that detailed coordination between Russian sports officials and the state intelligence agency to cover up PED use by the country’s athletes.
The cheating scandal is considered the worst in Olympic history and included 30 sports at the Sochi games.
In addition to being a heavy punishment, the total ban for the Paralympics is an intriguing one as well. The IOC refused to issue a blanket ban for Russian athletes at the Rio Olympics and instead let the worldwide sanctioning bodies of various sports issue punishments if necessary.
The Russian track and field team was barred from competing at the Rio games by the IAAF and the International Weightlifting Federation banned the Russian weightlifting team. Over 100 Russian athletes have been banned from the games.
The IOC received heavy criticism for its refusal to give Russia a complete ban in Rio. Perhaps the IPC didn’t want to face the same comments.
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