Russia's disabled athletes will not be allowed to compete as neutrals at this month's Rio de Janeiro Paralympics after their country was banned because of a state-sponsored sports doping program. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said in a statement Thursday it had rejected more than 175 Russian athletes who filed individual cases to try to take part in the Brazil event. "The International Paralympic Committee ... will not allow individual Russian athletes to participate as neutral athletes at the Rio Games", the organization said on its website (www.paralympic.org). "The decision followed individual requests by more than 175 Russian athletes to compete at the Paralympic Games which open on Sept. 7." Last week the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sport's highest tribunal, rejected a Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) appeal against the IPC suspension. Russia appealed against the CAS ruling to the Swiss Federal Court, which declined Wednesday to issue a preliminary injunction that would have let its disabled athletes compete in Rio. The court said it would rule later on the team's ban. Alternative event for banned athletes Russia will hold a two-day competition next week for its Paralympic squad banned from Rio, a top sports official said Wednesday after Switzerland's federal court rejected its final appeal. "We're planning to hold on Sept. 7-8 a series of tournaments for the country's Paralympic athletes at the training bases in the Moscow region," R-Sport news agency quoted Russia's Paralympic Committee head Vladimir Lukin as saying. A Kremlin spokesman said Wednesday that it was still to be decided if Putin would attend the event. Russia's Olympic squad narrowly escaped a total ban from the Rio Games, although all of its track and field team except US-based long-jumper Darya Klishina were prevented from competing due to the allegations of state-sponsored drug cheating and corruption.
