CORSIER VEVEY: 16 of the 17 Russian wrestlers were cleared to compete in the Rio Olympics on Thursday by the international governing body United World Wrestling (UWW). Freestyle wrestler Viktor Lebedev, a former two-time world champion in the 55kg class, was the only athlete excluded following a positive doping test a decade ago. The 28-year-old won a gold medal in the 2015 European Games in the 57kg class and had been due to compete in that event in Rio. “All Russian wrestlers currently qualified for Rio 2016 have all been tested in 2016 by WADA-accredited laboratories outside of Moscow,” UWW said in a statement. As per IOC’s regulations, Viktor Lebedev was not cleared for consideration due to a positive doping test at the 2006 Junior World Championships. “Lebedev’s spot has been replaced with Belarus – the nation having the next best-ranked wrestler from the 2015 World Championships,” the statement added. UWW’s Special Commission also suggested the IOC to test the entire Russian wrestling team in Rio before the start of the competition. The latest doping scandal to rock Olympic and Russian sports was triggered by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren whose report for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) detailed an elaborate doping system directed by the Moscow sports ministry and used in more than 30 sports over four years. The IOC sparked fierce criticism on Sunday when it resisted a blanket ban on the country in favour of allowing individual sports federations to make the call allowing Russians into Rio. The number of Russian athletes suspended from Rio is 111 of the 387 initially announced by the ROC.