Latvia's skeleton team boycott Russian worlds over doping

Latvia's powerful skeleton team will boycott the 2017 world championships in Sochi after Russia was accused of state-sponsored doping, saying on Sunday its giant neighbour had "stolen" the Olympic spirit.

Latvia said that they want the February 13-26 International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Championships to be switched from the Black Sea venue in Russia which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.

"We are not participating in the world championships in Sochi, Russia -- a place where the Olympic spirit was stolen in 2014," the Latvian skeleton federation said on Twitter in a statement under the hashtag #weboycott.

Last week a second damning report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accused Russia of hijacking international sport by using more than 1,000 athletes in an "institutional conspiracy" to win medals at the Sochi and 2012 London Olympics and other global events.

"Enough time has passed since the first public WADA and IOC announcements regarding dirty athletes in our sport," said the Latvian federation.

"As members of the skeleton sport community we feel that more can still be done to make it right. Now, we say -- enough is enough."

The federation added: "We will be glad to race in World Championships at any track of the world, but we are not participating in Sochi."

Latvia finished second in the medals table in skeleton at the 2016 world championships.

Olympic silver medallist Martins Dukurs defended his world title. He has also won seven successive overall World Cup titles. His brother Tomas was a bronze medal winner at the 2015 world championships.

The Latvian bobsleigh team has yet to decide whether or not to take part in Sochi.

In 2016, they won the four-man bobsleigh gold for the first time in their history.

The New York Times reported last weekend that American bobsled and skeleton athletes were mulling a possible boycott of the world championships in protest at the Russian doping scandal.

USA Bobsled & Skeleton chief Darrin Steele told AFP the organisation was opposed to "organisational boycotts" as a "general principle".

However, he confirmed that most US athletes due to take part in Sochi had voiced concerns about competing in Russia.