Russia, already suspended from next month's Rio Paralympics, has also "been banned for the winter edition in PyeongChang, South Korea in 2018 because of a state-sponsored sports doping program," according to Dmitriy Rogovitskiy of REUTERS. The Russian Paralympic Committee "announced the latest punishment handed out" by the IPC on Monday. The RPC said, "The decision taken by the IPC, upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding Russian Paralympians being excluded from the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, has also been extended to include the Winter Games in 2018 in Pyeongchang." Last week in Lausanne-based CAS "rejected an RPC appeal against the Rio ban" (REUTERS, 8/29).
RIO APPEALS: The BBC reported more than 100 Russian athletes have written to the IPC "asking to compete at the Rio Games." The decision to ban Russia from the Games "was upheld last week" by the CAS. But the RPC said that "scores of athletes are challenging that decision." RPC VP Pavel Rozhkov said, "More than 100 Russian sportsmen out of 266 who were selected for the Paralympics have filed individual cases with the IPC" (BBC, 8/30).
