Johannesburg, Aug.8 : The International Paralympic Committee (IOC) has issued a blanket ban on all the Russian athletes from competing in the Paralympics games of the ongoing Rio Olympics because of widespread doping allegations in the country.
The IPC had opened suspension proceedings in the wake of a report submitted by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren which revealed that Russia orchestrated state-sponsored doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
McLaren in his report stated that Russia's secret service and top sporting authorities conspired to cover up widespread doping, substituting doping-tainted samples with clean ones during the Winter Games in Russia.
Describing the anti-doping system in Russia as `broken and corrupted`, IPC president Sir Philip Craven confirmed that the governing board has suspended the country's Paralympic Committee with immediate effect,Sport24 reported.
In contrast, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had decided not to impose a blanket ban on Russia from the ongoing Rio Games, thus leaving it up to the individual sport's governing bodies to take the decision.
While the country's 68 track and field athletes were barred from competing in Rio, 271 Russian athletes were earlier given a clean chit to compete in the Brazilian capital.
Source: ANI
