Russia's Track & Field Team Banned By IAAF From Rio Olympics

<p>The Russian Sports Ministry says it is &quot;extremely disappointed&quot; that track and field's world governing body has ruled to uphold its ban on the country's track athletes from competing in international competitions, including the Olympics.</p>

Friday, June 17th 2016, 12:31 pm

By: News On 6


The Russian Sports Ministry says it is "extremely disappointed" that track and field's world governing body has ruled to uphold its ban on the country's track athletes from competing in international competitions, including the Olympics.

The ministry says Russia had done "everything possible" to be readmitted following its ban in November.

The ministry adds "we now appeal to the members of the International Olympic Committee to not only consider the impact that our athletes' exclusion will have on their dreams and the people of Russia, but also that the Olympics themselves will be diminished by their absence."

The IOC meets Tuesday and could overrule the IAAF ban by allowing members of the Russian team to compete.

The ban was imposed following a report by a World Anti-Doping Agency commission that alleged state-sponsored doping, cover-ups and corruption.

Friday's decision comes two days after a new WADA report cited continuing obstruction and violations of drug-testing in Russia.

Calls to keep the Russians out of Rio have grown following claims by the former director of Moscow's drug-testing lab that he doped Russian athletes and helped switch tainted samples for clean ones at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. WADA has launched an independent probe into those allegations, which were reported by CBS' "60 Minutes."

CBS News has learned from the lab's former director that any positive drug tests from the Sochi Games disappeared a long time ago.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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