Lausanne (AFP)
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decided on Monday to exclude Russia from the Olympics for four years, which includes Tokyo-2020 and Beijing-2022, to punish the falsification of control data handed over to the agency, said a spokesperson for WADA following the executive committee meeting in Lausanne.
"The full list of recommendations (Sanctions of the Compliance Review Committee) was approved unanimously" of the twelve members of the executive committee, said the media spokesman, James Fitzgerald.
The Compliance Review Committee recommended, among other things, the exclusion of the Russian flag from the Olympics and any world championship for four years, with the possible presence of Russian athletes under the "neutral" flag.
"This means that Russian athletes, if they want to participate in the Olympic or Paralympic Games or any other major event listed in the recommendations, will have to demonstrate that they are not involved in the doping programs described by the + Mclaren + reports or that their samples were not falsified, "said the spokesman.
The decision of WADA may be challenged within 21 days before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), by the National Anti-Doping Agency Rusada, or by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) or any international federation concerned.
The appeal would in principle be suspensive and the sanctions would only be applicable once confirmed by the CAS.
Other measures approved by WADA on Monday include a four-year ban on the organization of world competitions (Olympic Games and World Championships).
This suspension is the result of the falsification of anti-doping data provided by Russia to the World Anti-Doping Agency at the beginning of the year.
The computer experts commissioned by WADA found that "hundreds" of suspicious results had been erased from this data, some of them between December 2018 and January 2019, just before delivery.
© 2019 AFP