Sports

Doping Scandal Gets Russia Banned From This Year's Paralympics

Russia's history of doping in the Olympics and Paralympics has gotten its entire delegation banned from this year's Paralympics.

Doping Scandal Gets Russia Banned From This Year's Paralympics
Getty Images / Buda Mendes
SMS

Russia's entire Paralympics team has been banned from competing at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in September.

The International Paralympics Committee decision is part of the same doping scandal that prevented 118 Russian athletes from competing in the Summer Olympics.

SEE MORE: Can Russian Olympic Success Overshadow Its Doping Scandal?

Last month, a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation found Russia operated a doping program aimed at fooling international doping tests across most summer and winter Olympic and Paralympic sports for at least four years. 

"In my view, and in the view of every member of the IPC governing board, the McLaren report marked one of the darkest days in the history of all sports," said International Paralympic Committee President Philip Craven.

It's not unheard of for Paralympic athletes to get banned because of doping. A week before the 2012 Paralympic Games, two Russians and a Georgian tested positive for human growth hormone and received a two-year ban.

But this is the first time a country's entire team has been banned from competing because of doping. 

SEE MORE: Bizarre Olympic Cheating Scandals So Bad They Almost Deserve Medals

Russia has one of the strongest Paralympic delegations in the world, having won 102 total medals at the 2012 London Paralympics, coming in second after China.

The Russian Paralympic team will appeal the ban in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

This video includes images from Getty Images and clips from Channel 4Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and RT. Music provided courtesy of APM Music.