While the eyes and ears of the world were on IAAF president Sebastian Coe at Friday's press conference, several of the biggest names in the sport took to Twitter to share their opinions on the ban against Russian track and field athletes for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Outspoken clean sport advocate and U.S. Olympic medalist Kara Goucher was one of the first to share the news with her followers.

While I empathize w clean Russian athletes, we need real consequences to deter doping. Big day for clean athletes. https://t.co/XoQgMzwgco

— Kara Goucher (@karagoucher) June 17, 2016

Fellow Oiselle athlete Lauren Fleshman, who is also known to be quite vocal on the subject, included a letter from Athletics Canada that urged Coe to abstain from reinstating Russians because of a "deep-rooted doping culture" in the country.

Just read @AthleticsCanada's open letter to @sebcoe regarding upcoming decision on Russia. pic.twitter.com/M2s9sM1pKU

— Lauren Fleshman (@laurenfleshman) June 17, 2016

Kara's husband, Adam Goucher, shared a tweet that proposed another party was at the root of the IAAF's trouble with keeping the sport clean.




Olympic decathlete Trey Hardee expressed that the Russian Athletics Federation should pay the consequences for the violations.

Sad day for Russian ATHLETES. The people in charge, guiding Russian Athletics should be the ones punished- they created the culture of dope

— trey hardee (@treyhardee) June 17, 2016

Nike athlete and former Oregon Duck Trevor Dunbar had similar feelings.

Russia ban not a time for celebration. Sport has a long way to go. Heart is out to the clean Russian athletes.

— trevor dunbar (@DunbarTrevor) June 17, 2016

Some athletes chose not to comment directly on the situation, but made it clear they were aware of the buzz surrounding issue.

This mornings drug test had me look @ how often I've been tested in 2016. I'm now at 9 & officially the most tested track athlete this year

— Matthew Centrowitz (@MattCentrowitz) June 17, 2016

Others just got a little more visual....

IAAF council was unanimous in not reinstating Russian athletes for #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/ilhQT6RHOf

— Duncan Phillips (@DuncanPhillips3) June 17, 2016

The ultimate ramifications of removing Russia from the mix in Rio won't be clear until the Games begin in August, but it's likely the path to the podium for Team USA athletes just got a little less steep.