The last possible sports court – the arbitral tribunal for the Lausanne Games, announced on Thursday that Russian athletes will not be allowed in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, for violating anti-doping rules.
However, three referees appointed by TAS halved the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (Wada / Wada) proposal last year, calling for a four-year suspension, while allowing Russian athletes who had never been charged with doping to compete under the neutral flag.
Russia has been embroiled in a major doping scandal for years.
In addition, this country cannot host large-scale international events.
The World Anti-Doping Agency imposed the permit because the sub-laboratory in Moscow handled some of the files before handing them over to investigators.
Russia’s anti-doping agency Rusada was suspended in 2015 following evidence that it had heavily encouraged Russian athletes. Then, in September 2018, it was temporarily restored, but was declared inconsistent at the end of last year, due to data stolen by the Anti-Doping Laboratory in Moscow.
It may be recalled that Russia had already been excluded from the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the Pyongyang in 2018 due to the doping scandal that erupted four years ago, but some Russian athletes have yet to compete under the Olympic flag without representing the country.