The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Tuesday dismissed the appeal filed by the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) against the decision to ban Russian athletes from next month's Paralympic Games in Rio.
The decision was rendered by Governing Board of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on August 7, reports Tass.
"As a consequence, the IPC decision is confirmed," CAS said in a statement. "So, the entire Russian team has not been allowed to compete in the Paralympic Games."
"The CAS Panel in charge of this matter found that the IPC did not violate any procedural rule in dealing with the disciplinary process leading to the RPC's suspension and that the decision to ban the RPC was made in accordance with the IPC Rules and was proportionate in the circumstances," the statement said.
The Panel noted that "the RPC did not file any evidence contradicting the facts the IPC decision was based on," it said. The RPC sent an appeal to the CAS on August 15.
The hearing of the case was held in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. The Para Ganes is scheduled from August 7 to 18.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) earlier suspended the RPC and banned Russian athletes from this year's Games following the report of the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) led by Richard McLaren.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is satisfied with the ruling, it said in a statement.
"We are greatly encouraged that the CAS Panel has upheld the IPC Governing Board's unanimous decision," the IPC press service quotes the committee's President Philip Craven as saying.
"Although we are pleased with the decision, it is not a day for celebration and we have enormous sympathy for the Russian athletes who will now miss out on the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. It is a sad day for the Paralympic Movement, but we hope also a new beginning."
The IPC will now work with international federations to redistribute the 267 slots that had been secured by the Russian athletes to compete at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, the statement says.
"As an autonomous organisation with a different governance structure to the IOC, the IPC's decision was based on the fact that there is one sole IPC member in Russia responsible for both winter and summer Para sport. We found that member - the Russian Paralympic Committee - not to be fulfilling its obligations in regards to the IPC Anti-Doping Code and World Anti-Doping Code and therefore decided to take the best course of action for the Paralympic Movement," it added.
"Beyond Rio 2016, we will work with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to establish the criteria the Russian Paralympic Committee needs to meet in order to fulfil all its membership obligations and have its suspension lifted," the statement said.
"We will also continue to work closely with the IPC Anti-Doping Committee and WADA on the measures to be taken to address the athletes implicated as part of the McLaren Report, including advice on results management."
--IANS
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