It's a possibility, as anti-doping officials from at least 10 nations -- including the United States and Canada -- as well as 20 athlete groups are preparing the extraordinary step of requesting that the entire Russian delegation be barred from competing at the Summer Games over allegations of a state-sponsored doping program, according to multiple media reports Saturday.
Russia's track and field athletes are already banned from competing at next month's Olympics by the world governing International Association of Athletics' Federations (IAAF) over widespread doping in the sport.
On Monday, a report from Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren is due on his investigation of allegations that the Russian government manipulated doping samples taken at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia to protect Russian competitors.
In a blog posted on the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport website, Paul Melia, president of the body that oversees anti-doping efforts in Canada, said Olympic officials must be prepared to issue a blanket ban of all Russian athletes if the McLaren report confirms allegations that the country's government covered up doping failures.
He anticipated that the report "could paint an unprecedented picture of state-supported corruption and subversion of the anti-doping system" along the lines alleged by Russian laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov in the New York Times back in May.
"If Monday's report confirms the Rodchenkov allegations, then the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will have no choice but to ban all Russian athletes from this summer's Olympic Summer Games in Rio," Melia wrote. "And it must be the same consequence for the Russian contingent at the Paralympics in September."
Not everyone is on board with the idea.
European Olympic Committees president Pat Hickey said the reported efforts led by the United States and Canada to ban all Russian athletes the Summer Games before the McLaren report has been released "has shocked and concerned me on a number of levels.â€
"My concern is that there seems to have been an attempt to agree an outcome before any evidence has been presented," Hickey said.
"Such interference and calls ahead of the McLaren Report publication are totally against internationally recognized fair legal process and may have completely undermined the integrity and therefore the credibility of this important report."
US Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart could not immediately be reached for comment.
Banning all Russian athletes from the 2016 Rio Games would change the competitive landscape of the Olympics in all sports -- not just wrestling -- in a way not seen in more than 30 years.
In 1980, the U.S. and a number of other nations boycotted the Summer Olympics held in Moscow because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, Soviet bloc nations did not send athletes to compete at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
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