Russian weightlifting team banned from Rio Olympics

Russia's weightlifting team has been banned from competing at the Rio Olympics next month.

Russia avoided a blanket ban on competing at the Games, which start on August 5, earlier this week revelations surrounding a doping scandal.

But the International Weightlifting Federation has now banned Russia from competing in its sport entirely, saying Russian competitors were named in a World Anti-Doping Agency report exposing evidence of state-backed cheating.

"The integrity of the weightlifting sport has been seriously damaged on multiple times and levels by the Russians," the IWF said in a statement.

"Therefore an appropriate sanction was applied in order to preserve the status of the sport".

This is the first sport to impose an outright ban on Russia athletes competing in Brazil.