Russia has lost its appeal against the decision to ban its athletics team from the Rio Olympics next month.
The Russian Olympic Committee and 68 individual athletes lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport - sport's highest court - when athletics' world governing body the IAAF upheld a global competition ban against the Russian athletics federation that has been in place since November.
That sanction was imposed after a damning World Anti-Doping Agency report into widespread doping in Russian track and field. A second WADA-backed investigation has now revealed that a similar doping programme extended to almost all Olympic and Paralympic sports in Russia.
Earlier this week, WADA and others asked the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee to ban Russia entirely from the Rio Games but both bodies said they needed more time to consider their options.
In a statement, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said: "The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has issued its decisions in the arbitrations between the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), a number of Russian athletes (the claimant athletes) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
"The CAS has dismissed both the request for arbitration filed by the ROC and 68 claimant athletes, and the appeal filed by 67 of the same athletes against the IAAF decision to consider them as ineligible for the Olympic Games in Rio."
The CAS decision should provide legal certainty to other sports federations considering their own sanctions against their Russian member association.
Whether it will persuade the IOC to make such actions academic by banning the entire Russian delegation is another matter, as all indications suggest IOC president Thomas Bach remains reluctant to take such a drastic and unprecedented step.
The IOC's executive board is holding its second emergency meeting to discuss the crisis on Sunday and has promised to resolve the matter by Wednesday, which would be just over a week before Rio's opening ceremony.
The reaction to the CAS verdict in Russia has been one of anger and dismay.
Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, told the official news agency TASS that "the principle of collective responsibility is hardly acceptable".
"We are speaking here about field and track athletes, who had been preparing hard for the Olympics, who have nothing to do with doping, who have nothing to do with any of the accusations and suspicions, who had regularly been tested by foreign anti-doping agencies," Peskov continued.
"We can only express our deep regret - the news is not very good - and our relevant agencies will analyse the situation quickly and efficiently."
Dmitry Shlyakhtin, the new president of Russia's athletics federation ARAF, told TASS there is now "no chance" of the world's biggest country fielding an athletics team in Rio.
Isinbayeva, who had gone to the Swiss court to argue her case in person, simply described the verdict as "the funeral of track and field".
