Russia banned from next Olympics over doping scandal

Russia was banned from the world’s top sporting events for four years on Monday, including the next summer and winter Olympics and the 2022 soccer World Cup, for tampering with doping tests.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) executive committee acted after concluding that Moscow had planted fake evidence and deleted files linked to positive doping tests in laboratory data that could have helped identify drug cheats, Reuters reports.

"For too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport," WADA President Craig Reedie said after a meeting of WADA’s executive committee in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

He said in a statement that Russia’s actions demanded a robust response and "that is exactly what has been delivered today.”

WADA confirmed tthat he Russian national team cannot  take part in the 2022 World Cup soccer in Qatar under the Russian flag and can participate only as neutrals.

It was not clear how competing as neutrals at the World Cup might work in practice, Reuters noted.

FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, said it was in contact with WADA to clarify the extent of the decision.

The ban also means Russian sportsmen and sportswomen will not be able to perform at the Olympics in Tokyo next year under their own flag and national anthem.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has come under attack for not taking a harder line on Russian doping, said it fully backed the ruling by the Swiss-based WADA.

Russia has been embroiled in doping scandals since a 2015 report commissioned by WADA found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics.

Many of Russia’s athletes were sidelined from the past two Olympics and Russia was stripped of its flag altogether at last year’s Pyeongchang Winter Games as punishment for state-sponsored doping cover-ups at the 2014 Sochi Games.

Monday’s sanctions, which also include a four-year ban on Russia hosting major sporting events, were recommended by WADA’s compliance review committee in response to the doctored laboratory data provided by Moscow this year.

One of the conditions for the reinstatement of Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, suspended in 2015 but reinstated last year, had been that Moscow provide an authentic copy of the laboratory data.

The sanctions in effect strip the agency of its accreditation.

The punishment leaves the door open for clean Russian athletes to compete at big international events without their flag or anthem for the next four years, something they did at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, the report noted.

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