|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 9, 2019 18:09:52 GMT
 Russia has been banned from all major international sporting events for the next four years—a prohibition that will see Russia’s athletic teams excluded from next summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, the 2022 soccer World Cup in Qatar, and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s board met in Switzerland on Monday and agreed unanimously to the ban. It’s the most severe punishment dished out yet to Russia following years of the country carrying out a highly sophisticated and widespread state-powered doping program. However, Russian athletes who can prove beyond doubt they were not involved in doping scandal will still be able to compete at major events under a neutral flag. A total of 168 Russian athletes were able to compete that way at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. The ban came after Russia’s Anti Doping Agency was declared noncompliant for allegedly manipulating laboratory data that was handed over to investigators at the start of this year. Russia has 21 days to appeal the ban. It will almost certainly do so as, despite extensive evidence to the contrary, the country continues to deny many of the allegations against it. |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 10, 2019 18:44:32 GMT
Russia is banned from the next two Olympics and other major sports events for four years, though its athletes could still compete without representing the country if cleared by anti-doping authorities.
Russia’s hosting of world championships in Olympic sports also face being stripped after the World Anti-Doping Agency executive committee approved a full slate of recommended sanctions for tampering with a Moscow laboratory database.
Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in major events — including world championships — only if they are not implicated in positive doping tests or their data was not manipulated, according to the WADA ruling. “In this circumstance, they may not represent the Russian Federation,” according to a WADA release.
“While I understand the calls for a blanket ban on all Russian athletes whether or not they are implicated by the data, it was the unanimous view of the CRC [compliance review committee], which includes an athlete, that in this case, those who could prove their innocence should not be punished, and I am pleased that the WADA ExCo [executive committee] agreed with this,” WADA CRC chairman Jonathan Taylor said.
There are 145 unnamed athletes within WADA’s “target group of most suspicious athletes” from 2012-15 who would not be allowed to compete at the Olympics, Taylor said, adding that it’s possible those names will be made public. About one-third of them are still active.
Russia’s anti-doping agency can appeal the decision within 21 days. Russia previously signaled it would appeal the ruling.
“The decision will come into effect only when it becomes final ie when either RUSADA accepts it or it is upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” a WADA spokesperson said in an email.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 11, 2019 5:59:14 GMT
Maria Sharapova, who would have a difficult time qualifying for the Olympics next year, committed to play an event in California the week of the Tokyo Games.
Sharapova is scheduled to play World Team Tennis matches in California during the Olympic tennis events in late July, according to a press release. Sharapova’s longtime agent hasn’t responded to a message seeking confirmation that she is ruling out the Tokyo Games.
Sharapova, 32 and the 2012 Olympic silver medalist, was barred from the Rio Games due to her 15-month meldonium suspension in 2016 and 2017. That alone could rule her ineligible for Tokyo, given the World Anti-Doping Agency’s sanctions against Russia on Monday.
Sharapova is ranked No. 131 after a season shortened by shoulder surgery. She would have to be among the top four ranked Russian women after the French Open in June for possible automatic Olympic qualification. She is currently the 14th Russian.
Olympic eligibility rules include minimum participation requirements in Fed Cup, which Sharapova hasn’t done in this Olympic cycle, though exceptions can be made.
She carried the Russian flag into the London 2012 Opening Ceremony and carried the Olympic flame into Fisht Stadium at the Sochi 2014 Opening Ceremony, where she worked for NBC Olympics.
“It was the one thing that my parents allowed me to watch on TV late into the evening was the Olympics,” Sharapova said in 2017. “I grew up watching figure skating and hockey and a little bit of tennis. … Just capturing the Opening Ceremonies and seeing all the countries and the little hats that they wore, and I, as a little girl, I just imagined that maybe it would be me. But I never, ever thought that I would be carrying the flag.
“I received that [flag] honor in a text message, which is a very Russian way of communicating. I originally thought it was a joke, a big fat joke. Then I showed it to my mother, and she [said], no, they probably wouldn’t joke like that.”]
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 11, 2019 18:29:46 GMT
 US athletes are reportedly planning to stage protests at next summer’s Olympics in Japan if Russian participants, who will more than likely compete as neutrals, win medals there. The move is apparently dictated by American athletes’ disagreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) decision to allow clean Russian competitors to take part in major sporting events under a neutral flag. On Monday, WADA’s executive committee unanimously voted to hand a four-year ban to Russia, prohibiting the country from taking part in and hosting international sporting events, for alleged manipulations of doping data retrieved from a Moscow laboratory. The newly-imposed sanctions allow clean Russian athletes who have never been implicated in doping scandals to compete as neutral athletes, something that US sports figures are not satisfied with. |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 13, 2019 1:32:20 GMT
Former British Paralympian Vicki Aggar has resigned from the World Anti-Doping Agency's Athlete Committee over the Russian doping scandal. Aggar, who won a rowing bronze at Beijing 2008, was critical of the decision not to impose a blanket ban.  Russia was given a four-year ban from all major events, but athletes who can prove they are untainted by doping can still compete under a neutral flag. Aggar said: "I do not feel that Wada exists anymore." The British Athlete Commission chair said: "Events over the past two years have fundamentally shaken my belief in an organisation that I felt initially served a great purpose in protecting the integrity of sport. "Too many political games [or machinations], too many conflicts and too much self-interest has led to too many bad decisions, compromises and broken promises." Details of Russia's four-year ban Russia's Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) was first suspended in 2015 but the ban was lifted in September 2018, "subject to strict conditions". Part of those conditions was the handing of data to Wada and Rusada was declared non-compliant for manipulating laboratory data given to investigators in January 2019. Certain continental and regional events - such as Euro 2020 and World Cup qualifying matches in football, the Sochi Grand Prix in Formula 1 - are not included in the latest sanction. Aggar claimed that Wada refused to publish a statement by members of its own Athlete Committee calling for a blanket ban of Russian athletes. "I am a firm believer that all athletes have the right to an unfiltered voice," she said. "The concept of silencing athletes is one of reasons why we are seeing so much abuse in sport and it only serves to reinforce the imbalance of power. |
|
