Russian sports officials risk talking themselves into a tougher punishment for the country's Olympic team, according to the investigator who detailed an orchestrated doping program. Richard McLaren's work verifying allegations of systematic cheating by Russia at the 2014 Sochi Games has been vindicated this month by an International Olympic Committee panel that so far has found 22 winter sports athletes guilty.

Hundreds of Olympic athletes clad in red Nike track jackets squeezed into the East Room of the White House as rainy weather forced the reception indoors. "I was going to do a floor routine on the way out with Simone, but we decided it was a little too crowded," Obama quipped at the start of his remarks, referring to gold medal- winning gymnast Simone Biles.