Breaking: Russians banned from Rio Paralympics 2016

Russian athletes are banned from competing at the Rio 2016 Paralympics following the country's doping scandal.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) had opened suspension proceedings following the McLaren report, and has now confirmed the ban.

The report, published last month, claimed Russia had operated a state-sponsored doping programme.

The Russian Paralympic Committee will reportedly appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In contrast to the IPC, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose not to give Russia a blanket ban from the Olympic Games.

"The anti-doping system in Russia is broken, corrupted and entirely compromised," said IPC president Sir Philip Craven at a news conference on Sunday.
"The Russian Paralympic Committee are unable to ensure compliance with and enforcement of the IPC anti-doping code and the world anti-doping code within their own national jurisdiction and they can not fulfil its fundamental obligation as an IPC member.
"As a result, the Russian Paralympic Committee is suspended with immediate effect."

Paralympics take a stand

The IOC was widely criticised for ignoring the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) recommendation to ban Russia from the Rio Games.

Instead, each individual sporting federation was given the power to decide if Russian competitors were clean to compete.

A three-person IOC panel then had the final say.

In the end, 271 Russian athletes were cleared to compete at the Olympics.