Olympics: Blanket Weightlifter Ban New Blow For Russia

RIO DE JANEIRO, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th july,2016) - A ban on all Russian weightlifters dealt a new blow to the country ahead of an International Olympic Committee meeting Saturday that will be dominated by multiple doping scandals. New criticism of the athletes' village in Rio added to the dark clouds hanging over the Games which start in one week. The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) banned all eight Russian contenders -- five men and three women -- entered for Rio. About 117 Russian competitors from the 387 initially put forward by the Russian Olympic Committee have now been banned from the Games.

They include 67 track and field athletes. Weightlifting's reputation "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 IWF said. "We would like to highlight the extremely shocking and disappointing statistics regarding the Russian weightlifters.