Canada anti-doping chief ramps up Russia Olympic doping ban pressure

Countries must be ready to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics if a report due out Monday confirms allegations that the Russian government covered up doping failures, Canada's anti-doping chief said.

Paul Melia said the report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren "could paint an unprecedented picture of state-supported corruption and subversion of the anti-doping system".

In a blog posted on the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport website, CCES president Melia added: "This is a defining moment in international sport."

The World Anti-Doping Agency commissioned an investigation by McLaren into claims made by Russian laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov in The New York Times that anti-doping procedures were subverted by Russian government agencies at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

"If Monday's report confirms the Rodchenkov allegations, then the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will have no choice but to ban all Russian athletes from this summer?s Olympic Summer Games in Rio," Melia wrote. "And it must be the same consequence for the Russian contingent at the Paralympics in September."

Russian track and field athletes have been banned from international competition by athletics world governing body the IAAF after an earlier inquiry said there was "state-sponsored" doping.

Sixty-eight Russian athletes have taken a case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports which will rule this week whether they should be allowed to compete in Rio.

There is growing pressure for the ban to apply to other sports.

Melia said that the Olympic Charter gives the IOC authority to suspend any National Olympic Committee when there is evidence of systematic cheating.

"If the McLaren Report provides such evidence, and if the IOC hopes to restore public confidence in the Olympic values and recapture the trust of clean athletes, they must suspend the Russian Olympic Committee and ban them from taking a team to Rio," he said.