Russian weightlifters will not be allowed to compete at the Olympics after the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) elected to ban them from the upcoming Games.
Having already had two quota places removed for previous doping violations, the IWF ruled that the remaining eight Russians would also not be allowed to compete in Rio following the reanalysis of samples from the Beijing and London Games.
Aside from athletics, where all bar Florida-based Darya Klishina have been banned from competing at Rio, weightlifting is the only other sport to exclude all Russians after each individual governing body was asked to make a call on a sport-by-sport basis.
An IWF statement read: "The integrity of the weightlifting sport 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 decision was made less than 10 days before the weightlifting commences in Rio and the IWF insists it adopted a strong stance following a series of suspicious test results which emerged from the previous two Games.
It continued: "We would like to highlight the extremely shocking and disappointing statistics regarding the Russian weightlifters.
"As of today there are seven confirmed AAFs (adverse analytical findings) for Russian weightlifters from the combined reanalysis process of London and Beijing, while the second wave of Beijing reanalysis is not yet in a stage when the names and countries involved can be publicly disclosed."
Russians hoping to compete in the boxing, golf, gymnastics, handball and taekwondo are still waiting to hear from the respective federations on whether they will be banned or not.
However, three table tennis players from the country, Polina Mikhailova, Maria Dolgikh and Alexander Shibaev, have been told they can participate by the The International Table Tennis Federation.
And although 11 Russian boxers could be allowed to compete alongside the 12-strong British team in Brazil, Nicola Adams and others are not allowing the uncertainty to disrupt their preparations.
"The AIBA and the IOC are doing their job to make sure anybody participating will be clean," she said.
"They are doing their job and it's important I stick to mine, focus on getting ready and winning those gold medals."
