The anti-doping organization Wada decided on December 9 last year to suspend the Russian anti-doping organization Rusada and Russian sports for four years.

The suspension applies to the Olympics, Paralympics and World Cups in the sports that have an agreement with Wada (including all Olympic sports).

Russia appealed to the sports arbitration court Cas, which will hold a hearing in the case for four days next week.

It will then be some time before Cas announces the verdict in the case.

That ruling may be the end of the doping scandal surrounding Russian sports, which erupted as early as 2014 with revelations about extensive and state-supported doping in Russian sports.

Wrong punish collectively

In Russia, dissatisfaction with the sanctions is great and President Vladimir Putin has called them injustices.

Kirilenko, a former NBA player in the Utah Jazz and now chairman of the Russian Basketball Association, admits that Russia has problems with doping but believes that collective punishment is wrong.

- No one thinks of athletes who have never been involved in any cheating.

Those who have stayed away from doping are punished all their careers, all their lives.

And I do not like that, says Kirilenko to the site Insidethegames.

- And I grew up in Russian sports and have never been offered doping or seen anything suspicious.

Therefore, I am sure that there is no systematic doping in Russia.

We should not judge young activists and prevent them from experiencing their dreams.

Compete under a neutral flag

However, there is a way for Russian activists to be able to participate in the Olympics and other championships.

It is the same path they have been able to take since 2015, when Canadian professor Richard McLaren presented his report, which means that Russian athletes who can prove that they are free from doping and were not involved in the doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, can compete under neutral flag.

CLIP: The message: Russia is banned from sports for four years - miss the Olympics (09 December 2019)

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The message: Russia is banned from sports for four years - misses the Olympics Photo: Bildbyrån