{"id":149538,"date":"2019-12-16T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=149538"},"modified":"2019-12-23T11:06:22","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T11:06:22","slug":"russia-banned-from-next-olympics-and-world-cup-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/12\/russia-banned-from-next-olympics-and-world-cup-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Banned from Next Olympics and World Cup Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

9 Dec 2019 <\/em>– Russia was banned from the world\u2019s top sporting events for four years today, including the next summer and winter Olympics and the 2022 soccer World Cup, for tampering with doping tests.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The decision was a huge blow to the pride of a nation that has traditionally been a powerhouse in many sports but whose reputation has been tarnished by a series of doping scandals.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport,\u201d WADA President Craig Reedie said after a meeting of WADA\u2019s executive committee in the Swiss city of Lausanne.<\/p>\n

He said in a statement Russia\u2019s actions had demanded a robust response and added: \u201cThat is exactly what has been delivered today.\u201d<\/p>\n

WADA confirmed the Russian national team could not take part in the 2022 World Cup soccer in Qatar under the Russian flag and could participate only as neutrals.<\/p>\n

It was not clear how competing as neutrals at the World Cup might work in practice. FIFA, soccer\u2019s world governing body, said it was in contact with WADA to clarify the extent of the decision.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic organising committee said it would welcome all athletes as long as they were clean and work with other organizations to fully implement anti-doping measures, Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

WADA Director, Intelligence and Investigations, Gunter Younger, WADA President-Elect, Witold Banka, WADA President, Sir Craig Reedie, WADA Director General, Olivier Niggli and Chair of the CRC, Jonathan Taylor QC attend a news conference after World Anti-Doping Agency’s extraordinary Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting that has banned Russian athletes from all major sporting events in the next four years, in Lausanne, Switzerland, December 9, 2019. REUTERS\/Denis Balibouse<\/p><\/div>\n

Years of Doping Scandals <\/strong><\/p>\n

Russia has been embroiled in doping scandals since a 2015 report commissioned by WADA found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics.<\/p>\n

Many of Russia\u2019s athletes were sidelined from the past two Olympics and Russia was stripped of its flag altogether at last year\u2019s Pyeongchang Winter Games as punishment for state-sponsored doping cover-ups at the 2014 Sochi Games.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s sanctions, which also include a four-year ban on Russia hosting major sporting events, were recommended by WADA\u2019s compliance review committee in response to the doctored laboratory data provided by Moscow this year.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The sanctions in effect strip the agency of its accreditation.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Some Russian officials have tried to cast WADA\u2019s behavior as part of what they say is a broader Western attempt to hold back Moscow.<\/p>\n

Igor Lebedev, a lawmaker and deputy speaker of Russia\u2019s lower house of parliament, said the move was a serious blow to Russian sport that required a tough response from Russian authorities, the RIA news agency reported.<\/p>\n

If RUSADA appeals WADA\u2019s punishment, the case will be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDevastating Blow to Clean Athletes\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

Some sport officials wanted tougher action. Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), said the failure to impose a complete ban was \u201cyet another devastating blow to clean athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russian doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Moscow\u2019s suspended anti-doping laboratory, said that without the complete data from the Moscow laboratory there was no telling how many athletes were still competing doped.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia\u2019s falsifications and cheating continued in 2019 even when Russia was under scrutiny,\u201d Rodchenkov, now in hiding in the United States, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Noting that many files had been deleted and results lost, he said: \u201cWho can say whether there are any clean athletes in Russia if the crucial data is lost?\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Writing by Steve Keating in Toronto<\/em><\/p>\n

Editing by Andrew Osborn, Angus MacSwan and Timothy Heritage<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 reuters.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9 Dec 2019 – Russia was banned today from the next summer and winter Olympics and the 2022 soccer World Cup. The World Anti-Doping Agency concluded that Moscow had planted fake evidence and deleted files linked to positive doping tests in laboratory data that could have helped identify drug cheats. If RUSADA appeals WADA\u2019s punishment, the case will be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":149540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,180],"tags":[550,1694,638,278,1693,1146],"class_list":["post-149538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-brics","tag-corruption","tag-doping","tag-olympics","tag-russia","tag-soccer-world-cup","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}