Russia was preparing to send a large Paralympic delegation to Rio in 2016 when Richard McLaren's investigation for the World Anti-Doping Agency exposed a state-directed system designed to protect doped athletes. The report concluded that Russia's Ministry of Sport, national anti-doping agency RUSADA, Federal Security Service, and national sports-preparation center had operated a 'disappearing positive methodology' from at least late 2011 through August 2015. Positive urine samples were allegedly replaced with clean samples, allowing athletes to avoid sanctions; investigators identified 643 manipulated positives as a minimum because Russian records were incomplete. The evidence reached beyond Olympic sport: 27 positive samples were linked specifically to Paralympic disciplines, and the International Paralympic Committee found forensic evidence that the system had also been used during the 2014 Winter Paralympics. The second McLaren report, released in December 2016, said that more than 1,000 Russian competitors across summer, winter, and Paralympic sports had benefited from the cover-up. Emails even suggested that five blind powerlifters may have received prohibited drugs without knowing it, and that a 15-year-old was among those affected. On 7 August 2016, the IPC unanimously suspended the Russian Paralympic Committee and imposed a blanket ban on the entire Russian team, rather than allowing individually cleared athletes to compete. Russia's appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland failed, and the athletes were barred from competing even under a neutral flag. IPC president Philip Craven described the ban as a devastating but necessary 'new beginning'; Russia could return only after demonstrating that it could enforce anti-doping rules and guarantee fair competition.
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