Russia’s sports minister said on Tuesday that he was prepared to resign over a raging doping scandal in his country which could cost more Russian athletes their places at the Rio Olympics after “tens” more cases of cheating were exposed in wrestling.
Russian Wrestlers May Lose Their Place in the Olympics
Russian wrestlers may now join the country’s track-and-field athletes in being barred from competing at the Games in August, after an internal Russian Wrestling Federation (WFR) investigation uncovered multiple doping cases, WFR President Mikhail Mamiashvili said.
The disclosure came a day after four Russian track-and-field athletes were exposed as having tested positive for the banned drug meldonium, further damaging Moscow’s efforts to overturn a doping suspension in time for the Olympics starting in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5.
Russian sport was thrown into turmoil last year when a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) exposed endemic cheating and corruption in Russian athletics.
Russian athletes have been suspended from international competition and will miss the Olympics if the country cannot get the ban overturned – a humiliating blow to the pride and prestige of a sporting superpower.
The Culprit: Meldonium
Meldonium, which is used to treat diabetes and low magnesium levels, was banned by WADA on Jan. 1 after being linked to increased sporting performance.
It is particularly popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union, having been invented in Latvia and used to help Soviet soldiers fight at high altitude in the 1980s.
R-Sport reported on Monday that around 40 Russian athletes from more than 10 different sports had tested positive for meldonium in the first two months of 2016.
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