When in 2016 he fled to the United States fearing for his life, Grigory Rodchenkov , who was responsible for the Sochi anti-doping laboratory during the 2014 Winter Olympics, predicted a black future: “The Russian government will lie, lie and lie until all world creates you. It is his style in everything from always ». At that time, in fact, Rodchenkov thought he was doomed. After uncovering state doping in Russia at the World Anti-Doping Agency (AMA) through the McLaren report and, perhaps more importantly, on Netflix through the documentary Icarus, the former leader thought that sooner or later he would disappear. Maybe Russia would be sanctioned slightly, maybe for a while it would be heard by international media, but since the Kremlin it would be related to all kinds of crimes, his testimony would soon be vilified and eventually he would end up paying it.

Luckily, he was wrong.

This Monday, four years after Rodchenkov opened the case, Russia can receive the greatest sanction in the history of the sport. While the former head of Sochi's laboratory lives in California and dodges the false Russian news that attempts to denigrate him, the sports bureaucracy has advanced to reach the crucial meeting of the AMA Executive on Monday in Lausanne. If the requests of the Compliance Review Committee of the anti-doping agency are fulfilled, Russia will be removed from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, from all World Cups in the next four years and also, among others things, the organization of large events in that same period of time will be prohibited . As it happened in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games or in the last two World Athletics Championships, the measures cannot be absolute, that is, the Russian athletes who are authorized will compete under a neutral flag, but the country's presence in world sport will remain virtually canceled. There will be no symbols, no uniforms, no hymns.

Before the end of the year, Russia may resort to the Court of Sports Arbitration (TAS), but it hardly corrects the AMA.

The very serious sanction will be the end of a process that began with Rodchenkov and continued badly. Last year WADA opened the door to reverse the punishment imposed on Russia and the Government of the country only made the situation worse. He manipulated the list of athletes benefited by the state doping between 2011 and 2015 that was demanded by the Compliance Review Committee of the anti-doping body and was exposed to severe punishment. Rodchenkov, fortunately, was not right.

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