Could all Russia's athletes be banned from Olympics in light of WADA report?

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will today discuss whether to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics, which start on August 5. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) believes that it should impose a ban after commissioning a report which found that urine samples of Russian competitors were manipulated across the "vast majority" of summer and winter Olympic sports from late 2011 to August 2015.

The BBC reports that the International Olympic Committee’s executive board are to discuss the results of the report by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren in a teleconference.

McLaren said he had found convincing evidence that the Russian ministry of sport hid hundreds of positive drugs tests in the run-up to London 2012, as well as during the World Athletics Championships in Moscow in 2013 and the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.

Laboratories are said to have covered up 580 positive tests across 30 different sports, including 26 positive tests among cyclists.

McLaren also said that he had "only skimmed the surface" during a 57-day investigation.

The report corroborates evidence provided by Dr Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of the WADA-accredited laboratory in Moscow.

WADA president Sir Craig Reedie commented:

“[The report] reveals that the Russian Ministry of Sport manipulated the doping control process of the 2014 Sochi Games; the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow; the 2013 World University Games in Kazan; and, put measures in place to circumvent anti-doping processes before the 2012 London Games. As the international agency responsible for leading the collaborative, global, clean sport movement, WADA is calling on the Sports Movement to impose the strongest possible measures to protect clean sport for Rio 2016 and beyond.”

Russia's track and field athletes are currently barred from competing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio following a decision by world athletics’ governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations.

The All-Russia Athletic Federation will find out by Thursday whether its appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport has been successful.