Russia’s track and field team was barred from this year’s Summer Olympics in Rio months after an investigation found the Russian government to be running a doping program.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the official world governing body for track and field, announced Friday that Russia’s track and field athletes would be barred from competing in the 2016 Olympics, the New York Times reported.
The IAAF Council, which met Friday in Vienna, Austria, concluded that Russia did not do enough to restore confidence of other countries in the integrity of its athletes.
"Although good progress has been made, the IAAF Council was unanimous that [Russian Athletics Federation] had not met the reinstatement conditions and that Russian athletes could not credibly return to international competition without undermining the confidence of their competitors and the public," IAAF President Sebastian Coe said in a statement. "As a result, RusAF has not been reinstated to membership of the IAAF at this stage."
The Russian track and field athletes have been subject to suspension from international competitions for seven months, following an investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency which found that Russia was running a government-sponsored doping program.
The International Olympic Committee, the chief organization overseeing the games, is expected to meet next Tuesday to discuss the IAAF’s decision to maintain the ban.
Russian officials have for months sought to convince decision makers that the country is committed to fighting doping and can be trusted. "Russia fully supports fighting doping," Russia’s sports minister wrote in a letter to the IAAF this week.
However, a report released by the World Anti-Doping Agency on Wednesday documented Russian athletes’ continued attempts to obstruct and avoid drug testing.
The Russian Ministry of Sport said in a statement Friday that it was "extremely disappointed" in the IAAF’s decision. The ministry alleged that it had done "everything possible" to regain the trust of the global community in the wake of the ban.
"We are extremely disappointed by the IAAF’s decision to uphold the ban on all of our track and field athletes, creating the unprecedented situation of a whole nation’s track and field athletes being banned from the Olympics," the statement read. "Clean athletes’ dreams are being destroyed because of the reprehensible behavior of other athletes and officials."
This post will be updated as further information becomes available.