Inside the Deadlock Over Russia’s Track and Field Athletes

Sergey Shubenkov, pictured in 2016, is one of a handful of Russian track and field athletes who are allowed to compete internationally.LONDON — More than 40,000 runners will line up for the London Marathon this weekend, but not a single athlete from Russia will be in the professional field. The same was true for the Boston Marathon on Monday, as well as nearly every track and field event for the past 30 months — the major ones like the Olympic Games, and minor ones, as well.

Olympic officials renewed their embrace of Russia after the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, ruling that the country had served its sentence for conducting an elaborate doping program that corrupted several…