Russia slammed by Paralympic leaders, faces Rio doping ban

He said his committee has received names of Russian Paralympic athletes associated with 35 “disappearing positive samples” from a Moscow anti-doping laboratory which were highlighted in WADA report.

Vitaly Smirnov, former International Olympic Committee vice-president and current honorary member, whom Putin picked to head an anti-doping commission, at a news conference in Moscow July 22, 2016.

The IOC said the previous first wave of retests had found 30 positive cases from Beijing and 23 from London.

At the same time, the Soviet leader said he was concerned and upset over the possibility that “in the event that Russian athletes are barred from participation in the Olympics, “clean” athletes will be punished along with those guilty”.

Australian Paralympic Committee chief Lynne Anderson spoke in support of the move by the IPC, and said the committee would fully support any move to suspend NPC Russia from Rio based on the findings of the McLaren Report.

Moscow officials have slammed the CAS decision to reject its appeal against a ban from the world athletics body IAAF, blaming a broader political campaign by the West against Russian Federation.

That decision, made by the world’s highest sports tribunal, could pave the way for the International Olympic Committee to impose a blanket ban on all Russian athletes over a massive, state-sponsored doping program.

The Paralympics take place from September 7-18.

An additional 19 doping samples from the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi were tampered with, much like the samples of other Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to limit the damage on Friday by saying he wanted to see the creation of an independent commission to address problems with Russia’s anti-doping systems.

“The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping”, IOC President Thomas Bach said.

A decision could come on Sunday. “So somewhat reluctantly, I am led to one conclusion, exclusion from Rio”, Pengilly said to the BBC.

The results from the second set of reanalysed samples – comprising 30 athletes from Beijing and 15 from London – takes the total number of athletes who have failed doping tests during the period of reanalysis so far to 98. “Sports should be clean and the health of athletes should be well protected”, he said.

The growing scandal has revealed that the Russian government provided performance enhancing drugs to athletes and then also helped them cheat their way through urine tests designed to create an even playing field for athletes coming from different countries.

Bach and other Olympic officials have repeatedly cited the difference between collective and individual punishment.