Russia is banned from the Paralympic Games as punishment for a state-backed doping program, after losing an appeal at sport's highest court.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced its urgent verdict Tuesday to dismiss the Russian Paralympic Committee's appeal against exclusion from the Sept. 7-18 games in Rio de Janeiro. A hearing was held in Rio on Monday.
The court said its judges ruled that the International Paralympic Committee "did not violate any procedural rule" in banning the Russian team two weeks ago.
"(The) decision to ban the (Russian team) was made in accordance with the IPC Rules and was proportionate in the circumstances," the court said in a statement.
An appeal by Russia's Paralympic committee to Switzerland's federal court is possible though unlikely before the games open, Alexei Karpenko, an attorney representing the Russian athletes, said in televised remarks.
The Swiss supreme court could intervene if the legal process was abused but not judge the merits of the evidence — which the CAS panel was satisfied had proven that Russian authorities organized cheating.
The Russian appeal "did not file any evidence contradicting the facts on which the IPC decision was based," the CAS panel said.
The world Paralympic body used evidence from a World Anti-Doping Agency inquiry into a Russian state-orchestrated program of doping and coverups which ran from 2011 to 2015.
Russian authorities also corrupted results at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and Winter Paralympics by swapping tainted doping samples for clean ones at the official WADA-accredited laboratory, the inquiry said.
The IPC said in Rio two weeks ago it had evidence of manipulated doping tests relating to 44 Russian athletes, including 27 from competitors in eight sports that are part of the Paralympic program.
Then, IPC President Philip Craven said of Russia that: "Their medals over morals mentality disgusts me."