Three Russian cyclists banned from Rio Olympics, three under investigation
Monday 1 August 2016 15:39, UK
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has confirmed that three Russian cyclists have been withdrawn from next month's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, having served doping suspensions in the past.
The trio were not named but are understood to be recent Tour de France stage winner Ilnur Zakarin, double Olympic bronze medal winner Olga Zabelinskaya and team pursuiter Sergey Shilov - all three have served doping bans in the past.
Three further cyclists are under investigation and may also be unable to compete in Rio, due to pending doping cases.
A UCI statement read: "Following the publication of the McLaren Investigation Report, the UCI immediately sought information from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) related to the sport of cycling and was informed that three riders named by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to compete in Rio 2016 were potentially implicated.
"The UCI, through the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF), is in the process of identifying relevant rider samples and is in close dialogue with WADA to move forward with these cases immediately.
"It has also passed the names of these three athletes to the IOC in the context of its Executive Board decision.
"Three other riders who have previously been sanctioned for Anti-Doping Rule Violations have been withdrawn by the ROC."
However, 11 other Russian cyclists have been cleared to take part in the Rio Games.
With regard to other sports, United World Wrestling (UWW) has cleared 16 of Russia's 17-strong team for Rio.
The only athlete to be rejected by wrestling's international federation is Viktor Lebedev, because he has already served a doping ban.
Like every other federation in the summer Olympic programme, the UWW has been assessing each Russian athlete's record in the wake of the devastating report into state-sponsored doping by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren.
A statement from UWW's special commission said: "Sixteen of the 17 Russian wrestlers entered to compete at the Olympic Games are cleared to be considered for acceptance by the International Olympic Committee/Court of Arbitration for Sport."
The latest announcements mean 108 Russian athletes have now been banned from the Olympics.
