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Russian weightlifters banned from Rio Olympics

The International Weightlifting Federation becomes only the second body, after the IAAF, to impose a total ban on Russian athletes in their sport at Rio 2016.

The International Weightlifting Federation has banned Russian athletes from competing at this summer's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Last week, the International Olympic Committee ruled that the governing body of each individual sport would decide whether or not to allow Russian athletes to perform following allegations of state-sponsored doping in the country.

The IOC itself controversially rejected the chance to impose a blanket ban on all Russians at the Games, but the IWF has ruled that none will be allowed to compete in weightlifting.

Russia as a stand-alone nation have won 26 medals in the sport since first competing in 1996, including three golds.

Apti Aukhadov, Aleksandr Ivanov, Svetlana Tsarukayeva, Natalya Zabolotnaya and Tatiana Kashirina all won silver medals at the London Games four years ago, but none will be able to defend their titles this summer.

"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," read an IWF statement.

"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."

The IWF becomes only the second federation, after athletics governing body the IAAF, to impose a total ban on Russian athletes in their sport.

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