Montreal (AFP)
An independent committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday recommended a four-year suspension from Russia of future sports competitions, which therefore concerns the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo, for falsifying laboratory data transmitted to investigators of the Agency.
If this recommendation were accepted by WADA's Executive Committee, which meets in Paris on 9 December, Russia would not be able to participate in the next Olympic Games (OG) in summer and winter 2020 and 2022 at Youth and the Paralympic Games, says WADA in a statement.
The country could also be removed some matches of the Euro-2020 football, for the moment scheduled in St. Petersburg.
Russia would have the opportunity to challenge such sanctions before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
In a long press release, WADA describes the heavy penalties that have been recommended to it by its Compliance Review Committee (CRC).
For four years, no Russian official would be allowed on the theaters of major sports competitions, and Russia could no longer apply for the attribution of international sports events, including OJ.
Worse, if events have already been assigned to him, the organizer will have to withdraw it and "reassign it to another country, unless it is impossible from a legal or practical point of view". This measure could therefore concern Euro 2020 and the city of Saint Petersburg.
Moreover, Russian athletes can only participate in major international sports competitions when they are "able to demonstrate that they are not involved in any way" in the case. In this case, they would not be allowed to compete under Russian flag but under neutral banner, as it is already the case in athletics since 2015.
According to WADA's independent committee, quoted in the agency's press release, "hundreds" of suspicious anti-doping test results have been removed from the files it received from Russia in early 2019. This is, for CRC, "an extremely serious case of non-compliance".
© 2019 AFP