Russia says still Rio hope after rejected appeal

Russia says still Rio hope after rejected appeal

MOSCOW - Russia's Paralympic Committee on Wednesday said there was still a chance Russians could compete at the Rio Paralympics but remained vague on the legal measures it would take in the hope of overturning the country's suspension.

Russian Paralympic Committee president Vladimir Lukin speaks during a press conference in Moscow on August 24, 2016

"The Russian Paralympic Committee believes that Russian athletes still have a chance to take part in the Games," the committee said in a statement.

The committee's president, Vladimir Lukin, declined to elaborate on the legal steps it was pondering to contest Tuesday's rejection by the Court of Arbitration for Sport of Russia's appeal against its suspension.

"We are using all possible measures to prove that we are right and that our opponents are wrong," Lukin told reporters, adding that legal means to challenge the rejection of the appeal would become clear "in a day or two."

Russia last week appealed a decision by the International Paralympic Committee to suspend the country over evidence of state-sponsored doping.

After the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport announced it had rejected Russia's appeal on Tuesday, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko decried that it had made a "political" decision.

Lukin said that Russian Paralympic hopefuls might file individual complaints with the European Court of Human Rights and that the country could contemplate holding competitions for the banned athletes during the Rio Paralympics if the decision is not overturned.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday slammed the rejection of Russia's appeal as a "cynical decision", accusing members of the international Paralympic movement of trying to "remove strong rivals."

Russia narrowly escaped a blanket ban from the Rio Olympics last month when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) left it up to international sports federations to determine which Russians were eligible to compete while granting itself a final say.

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