Russia banned from Olympic Games over doping scandal

 

FILE PHOTO: A man stands in front of the Olympic rings outside the headquarters of the Olympic Committee of Russia in Moscow, Russia November 28, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia was banned from the Olympics and world championships in a range of sports for four years on Monday after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) ruled to punish it for manipulating laboratory data, a WADA spokesman said.

 

WADA’s executive committee took the decision after it concluded that Moscow had tampered with laboratory data by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.

 

The WADA committee’s decision to punish Russia with a ban was unanimous, the spokesman said.

 

Russia, which has tried to showcase itself as a global sports power, has been embroiled in doping scandals since a 2015 report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics.

 

Its doping woes have grown since, with many of its athletes sidelined from the past two Olympics and the country 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 had been recommended by WADA’s compliance review committee in response to the doctored laboratory data provided by Moscow earlier this year.

 

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

 

The sanctions effectively strip the agency of its accreditation.

 

Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov last month attributed the discrepancies in the laboratory data to technical issues.

 

The punishment, however, leaves the door open for clean Russian athletes to compete at major international sporting events without their flag or anthem for four years, as was the case during the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

 

Some Russian officials, meanwhile, have branded the call for sanctions unfair and likened it to broader Western attempts to hold back the country.

 

If RUSADA appeals the sanctions endorsed by WADA’s executive committee, the case will be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), WADA has said.

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-12-09

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Glad to hear it! 

Does that mean China are clean this time around ?

China only has systematic doping in certain sports. Like the sports that require effort.

 

And the national sport of uigher bashing.

 

Russia should be banned from the UK General Elections ..

 

 

I can remember the swimmers in 1973 winning gold medals , then again 3 years later winning another 10 out of 12 medals, when comments abounded about how the women swimmers had unusually Deep Voices, the coaches of the day replied "we came here to swim not sing" 

systematic cheating and refining of anabolic steroids masking agents has been going on for years, the accountability has finally hit the right place, way over due in time.  I still feel for those robbed of medals from that era who played the sport cleanly, 

 

TAT should be onto this like a fly on a turd, "Tourism Set To Boom Again, Banned Russian Olympians  may opt for Pattaya and Phuket bringing with them the equivalent of 50 trillion rubbles to spend"

Good putin will be a very unhappy boy!

11 hours ago, elliss said:

 

Russia should be banned from the UK General Elections ..

 

 

Now Now; Those Russians are good at medal-ling, though. ????

4 hours ago, leeneeds said:

I can remember the swimmers in 1973 winning gold medals , then again 3 years later winning another 10 out of 12 medals, when comments abounded about how the women swimmers had unusually Deep Voices, the coaches of the day replied "we came here to swim not sing" 

systematic cheating and refining of anabolic steroids masking agents has been going on for years, the accountability has finally hit the right place, way over due in time.  I still feel for those robbed of medals from that era who played the sport cleanly, 

 

Armstrong did the same in the tour de France....

13 minutes ago, Thian said:

Armstrong did the same in the tour de France....

Your so right,  cheating <deleted>, the complicit who knew are just as guilty

37 minutes ago, Thian said:

Armstrong did the same in the tour de France....

Agree, and so do quite a few more athletes. But the systematic state organised doping programmes I think stem from the DDR, but still in use, though much more refined, in Russia and China.

I am sure that by this afternoon Trump will be claiming that they are really good people and are perfect 

This has been going on since the 60's if not earlier. Can it be made retroactive and take all their medals back especially in weightlifting in the 70s/80s. The cheating was beyond obvious then. More subtle in other sports.

19 minutes ago, Langsuan Man said:

I am sure that by this afternoon Trump will be claiming that they are really good people and are perfect 

And demanding to know why he can't pardon them.

I shall wait and see, if these actually happens!

A little hint: I doubt it!

Who'd have thought any of us would live to see the day when a Russian exhibited self centred and anti social behaviour?

WADA don't touch that door handle????

 

''In 2003, Wade Exum,the US Olympic Committee 's director of drug control, gave copies of documents to Sport Illustrated that revealed that some 100 American athletes failed drug tests from 1988 to 200,arguing that they should have prevented from competing in the Olympics but they were nevertheless cleared to compete.''       

This is an extract from Wikipedia about Carl Lewis , as he was one of the athletes who failed  drug tests. Of course,he was also cleared although he failed the drug tests.

On 12/10/2019 at 8:51 AM, Thian said:

Armstrong did the same in the tour de France....

This is the reason I don’t watch any sports save some top international Union every now and again. 

They had an amazingly elaborate system-I give them an A plus on cheating 

1 hour ago, ncc1701d said:

On 12/10/2019 at 7:51 AM, Thian said:

Armstrong did the same in the tour de France....

This is the reason I don’t watch any sports save some top international Union every now and again. 

Maybe it's also the reason why the USA didn't qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2018?? 52 countries all together under one flag and they even can't qualify???? I mean.......

35 minutes ago, Thian said:

Maybe it's also the reason why the USA didn't qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2018?? 52 countries all together under one flag and they even can't qualify???? I mean.......

If you’re talking soccer I have zero idea about it. Boring as bat guano.

On 12/10/2019 at 10:04 AM, HuskerDo said:

This has been going on since the 60's if not earlier. Can it be made retroactive and take all their medals back especially in weightlifting in the 70s/80s. The cheating was beyond obvious then. More subtle in other sports.

I do think that has happened a few times where a medallist was doping and they all moved up a medal.

 

I cant be bothered to search now but have a vague recollection that in the olympics where ben johnson got done (88)? That later it was found that every runner that was in that final got done for doping.

 

I was not happy that marion jones got done, she was a cutie.

Found it. All but 2 in that race doped.

 

My friend was physio for the oz team and a pole vaulter. I recall around that time i asked how many in that race he thought doped. He said all. I laughed. But he was more correct than me.  

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/10325587/1988-Olympic-100m-final-what-happened-next-to-athletes.html