Fourteen national anti-doping agencies, including the United States, Canada and Germany, sent a joint letter to IOC President Thomas Bach on Thursday calling on him to ban Russia from Rio. The IAAF ban covers all international competition and follows an investigation by WADA last year which found widespread "state-sponsored" doping. Originally, 68 Russians had appealed against the IAAF ban but the governing body has cleared US-based long jumper Darya Klishina to compete in Rio. Bach, the IOC president, has called Russia's actions a "shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games." Russia is a sporting powerhouse whose absence from Rio would create the biggest crisis in decades for the Olympic movement.

Source: dna July 22, 2016 10:30 UTC