IOC to study legal options before banning Russia from Rio Olympics

The International OlympicCommittee said today it will study "legal options" before deciding whether to ban Russia from the Rio Games over its state-run doping programme.  But Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko was barred fromattending the Games and the IOC ordered a disciplinary commission to look into his ministry's role in what a report called a "state-dictated failsafe system" if drug cheating. 

The IOC executive held emergency talks today on a bombshell inquiry commissioned by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) into the state doping at the Sochi Winter Olympics and other major events in Russia. The IOC said it would not give backing to any international events in Russia because of the scandal but had to put back a decision on whether to bar Russia from the Rio Games which start on August 5. 

WADA has called for Russia to be banned from international competition. And IOC president Thomas Bach called the doping scandal a "shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games."But the IOC said it "will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice."

The Olympic leadership said it will also have to wait for a Court of Arbitration for Sports decision ruling Thursday on an appeal by 68 Russian athletes against an IAAF ban from competition.