Russia’s entire Olympic team of 387 athletes will not participate in the Rio Olympics next month.
The country’s team has been banned from competing in the international games after Russian authorities were caught running a state-sponsored doping program.
Russia lost a legal challenge this week, forcing the nation’s top athletes to sit out the prestigious games, the Daily Mail reported late Saturday.
It’s the strongest ruling against a country in the history of the International Olympic Committee, which made the verdict Saturday. Officials have also recommended Russia be banned from the 2018 Winter Games.
In recent Olympic games — London and Sochi — Russian athletes used steroids and other drugs to improve their performances. Those covering up the abuses swapped out dirty drug test samples for clean ones from non-competing athletes, and the instructions to do so came from the very top of Russia’s government.
