Sport / Rio 2016 Olympics

'We have cleanest team at Rio' - Russia

18:37 pm on 5 August 2016

Rio 2016 Olympics - The president of Russia's Olympic Committee is boasting his country will likely be the "the cleanest team" at the Games.

Russian rowers. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Russia currently has 271 athletes cleared to compete in Rio by the International Olympic Committee, more than two-thirds of their original entry list.

The World Anti-Doping Agency previously recommended a blanket ban on the country after a doping scandal.

"The Russian team may have experienced the toughest checks of the Olympics, because they had to go through multiple tests and checked," said Alexander Zhukov.

"On top of all that, Russian athletes are going through additional testing which is taking place at the Olympic Village.

"So, as of now, the Russian team is probably the cleanest in Rio."

The IOC had asked individual sports federations to decide whether Russians could compete, in the wake of the country's doping scandal.

The International Weightlifting Federation excluded all eight Russians entered for Rio last week and the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled the ban had been properly applied.

Appeals by 17 Russian rowers were also rejected at the hearing in Brazil.

However, two of those rowers have scored a partial victory against their ban after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled their exclusion over a past doping sanction was "unenforceable".

Anastasia Karabelshikova and Ivan Podshivalov had appealed on the grounds that they had already served their doping suspension in the past, and should be allowed to compete.