Russia bids to avoid Rio ban as IOC reports new test failures

Russia today made a last-ditch bid to avoid a blanket ban at the Rio Games over state-run doping as a fresh batch of drug test failures from Beijing 2008 and London 2012 rocked the Olympics.
The IOC's executive board are to hold a conference call on Sunday to discuss barring Russia from the Olympics starting on August 5 over bombshell doping revelations.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday rejected an appeal by Russia's track and field team against their suspension from Rio in a decision seen as a key indicator as the IOC debates whether to kick out the whole Russian team.

Russia is a sporting powerhouse whose absence from Rio would create the biggest crisis in decades for the Olympic movement and President Vladimir Putin launched a final push to avert a ban.
"The official position of the Russian authorities -- the government, the president and all of us -- is that in sport there is not and can be no place for doping," Putin told government ministers.
The Kremlin strongman ordered officials to cooperate with the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency and Russia's Olympic committee to establish an anti-doping commission.

He also picked an 81-year-old former national Olympic committee chief, Vitaly Smirnov, to head the new commission.

Last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev also intervened, urging IOC president Thomas Bach to spare clean athletes in a letter released by Match TV sports channel.
"For me the principle of collective punishment is unacceptable," wrote 85-year-old Gorbachev, asking Bach to make a "just decision."
Against the backdrop of the current doping scandal engulfing Russia the IOC reported separately on Friday 45 new doping failures from the last two Games, bringing the total number of positive drug tests to 98 since a retesting programme was launched.
The IOC has reanalysed more than 1,200 samples, focusing on medal winners, in a bid to clean up the Olympics' reputation.

It did not identify the athletes or their nationalities for legal reasons but said 30 positives came from Beijing, including 23 medal winners, and 15 from London.