In the wake of the massive Russian doping scandal, the IOC has left it up to individual sport federations decide on whether to ban Russian athletes from competing in the Rio Olympics after the massive state-sponsored doping scheme was made public.
And another group will indeed be barred from competition, as Russia’s weightlifting team has been entirely banned from the Games:
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) took the step following a series of suspicious test results at the Beijing and London Games.
“We would like to highlight the extremely shocking and disappointing statistics regarding the Russian weightlifters,” said a statement by IWF.
“The integrity of the weightlifting sport has been seriously damaged on multiple times and levels by the Russians, therefore an appropriate sanction was applied in order to preserve the status of the sport.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency had recommended that all Russians be banned from the Games, but the IOC decided to let the individual sports decide how to proceed. Currently, according to Russia’s sports minister, 272 of the original 387 athletes are still scheduled to compete in the Games as of now. Boxing, golf, gymnastics, handball and taekwondo still must publicly confirm their decisions on what to do with the athletes in those sports.
If you’re looking to keep tabs on the story, The New York Times has a running tracker of which Russian athletes have been banned.
