Russia name, flag banned from Olympics

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP):

Russia will not be able to use its name, flag and anthem at the next two Olympics or at any world championships for the next two years after a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday.

The Lausanne-based court halved the four-year ban proposed last year by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in a landmark case that accused Russia of state-ordered tampering of a testing laboratory database in Moscow. The ruling also blocked Russia from bidding to host major sporting events for two years.

Russian athletes and teams will still be allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics next year and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, as well as world championships, including the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, if they are not banned for or suspected of doping.

One win for Russia is the proposed team name at major events. The name ‘Russia’ can be retained on jerseys if the words ‘Neutral Athlete’ or equivalents like ‘Neutral Team’ have equal prominence, the court said.

The burden of proof was also shifted away from Russian athletes and more towards WADA when their doping history is vetted for selection to the Olympics or other sporting events.

RETAIN NATIONAL COLOURS

Russian athletes and teams can also retain the national flag colours of red, white and blue in their jerseys at major events. That was not possible for Russians at the past two track world championships.

Even with those concessions, the court’s three judges imposed the most severe penalties on Russia since allegations of state-backed doping and cover-ups emerged after the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

WADA President Witold Bańka hailed the court’s decision despite its preferred ban being cut to two years.

“The [CAS] panel has clearly upheld our findings that the Russian authorities brazenly and illegally manipulated the Moscow Laboratory data in an effort to cover up an institutionalised doping scheme,” Bańka said in a statement.

The case centred on accusations that Russian state agencies altered and deleted parts of the database before handing it over to WADA investigators last year. It contained likely evidence to prosecute long-standing doping violations.

The CAS process was formally between WADA and the Russian anti-doping agency, which refused to accept last year’s four-year ban. The Russian agency, known as Rusada, was ruled non-compliant last year – a decision upheld yesterday by the three judges.

Rusada was also ordered to pay WADA US$1.27 million (J$182 million) to cover investigation costs, plus it was fined US$100,000 (J$14 million) and ordered to pay US$452,000 (J$65 million) towards legal costs.

The Russian agency can appeal the sanctions to the Swiss supreme court in Lausanne.