Russian athletes competing on the world level won’t be allowed to use their country's name, flag or anthem for the next two years.
Last year, the World Anti-Doping Agency had proposed a four-year ban due to what The Associated Press reported were accusations that “Russian state authorities tampered with a database from the Moscow testing laboratory before handing it over to WADA investigators last year.”
The Russian Anti-Doping Agency sent WADA’s recommended ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. According to the AP, the Court of Arbitration cut WADA’s proposal in half, ruling that Russia won’t be able to use its name at competition or host any major sporting events for two years.
The ban encompasses the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which have been postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19, as well as the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The doping scandal, which began in 2015, also barred Russia from competing under its flag at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
The investigation began a year after Russia led the medal count at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. A Moscow laboratory that closed in 2015 was the centerpiece of the scandal. A Compliance Review Committee suggested the ban in November 2019 due to a number of inconsistencies in data taken from the laboratory in January 2019, including deleting hundreds of likely positive doping tests from a database of results.
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