Blanket weightlifter ban new blow for Russia

RIO DE JANEIRO—A ban on all Russian weightlifters dealt a new blow to the country's image 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."

Among those banned, Artem Okulov is a world champion while Ruslan Albegov took a bronze medal at the 2012 London Games and Tatiana Kashirina a silver.

The IOC has taken fierce criticism for not ordering a blanket ban on Russia after an independent report said there was state-organized doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.