German official wants Russian competitors excluded from Rio Olympics

BERLIN (Reuters) – The head of theGerman Olympic Sports Confederation on Tuesday said Russian competitors should be banned from the Rio Olympics if the findings of a scathing report about Moscow concealing positive doping tests at the 2014 Sochi Olympics are confirmed.

Confederation president Alfons Hoermann told the German NDR Info radio program that the report by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren showed it was time to think about more significant consequences.

“Where there are systematic lies, there must also be systematic punishment,” Hoermann said. “If the McLaren report is confirmed, the logical consequence is a broad exclusion” of Russian athletes,” Hoermann said.

Hoermann said it would be important to consider whether to exclude the entire Russian team from the Rio games or just specific teams from sports where widespread doping had been proven.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday responded to the McLaren report by recommending that the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee consider banning all sportsmen and women entered by the Russian Olympic Committee for next month’s Rio Olympics.

The McLaren report revealed evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and said Moscow concealed hundreds of positive doping tests in many sports ahead of the Sochi games.

The Russian Olympic committee said on Tuesday that allegations required fuller investigation and it was ready to

provide full assistance in such an investigation.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Angus MacSwan)