Russia says taekwondo team approved for Rio Olympics

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia says its taekwondo team has been approved to compete at the Rio Olympics against the backdrop of the country's doping scandal.

Under International Olympic Committee rules introduced last week following accusations of a vast state-sponsored doping cover-up, Russian athletes must be individually approved by international sports federations and rejected if they previously were banned for doping offenses or implicated in the alleged cover-up.

Anatoly Terekhov, head of the Russian Taekwondo Union, says all Russians entered for taekwondo in Rio have been approved by the World Taekwondo Federation, in comments to Russian agency R-Sport.

Terekhov says he received a letter from the WTF and that "we were told that all three of our athletes have officially been admitted to compete in the Olympic Games."