• The greatest sanction in history. Russia will not be able to participate in Games or World Cups for four years
  • Opinion: A step forward in the face of doping

The sanction of the World Anti-Doping Agency (AMA) to Russia does not mean that their athletes cannot participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. They may compete under a neutral flag, but first they must show that they are not involved in the doping programs described in the McLaren report or that your samples have not been falsified. Some of the stars that will have to pass this cut are tennis player Daniil Medvedev , rival of Nadal in the final of the United States Open and number four of the world, or the synchronized team, which this same season almost made full in the Swimming World Cup : nine golds out of 10 possible.

The situation is reminiscent of Rio 2016 and Pyeongchang 2018. In the last Summer Olympics, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) allowed 278 Russian athletes to compete under a neutral flag and vetoed 111, including the athletic and weightlifting delegations almost completely. Athletics World Championships can be a good guide: since 2015, Russia has disappeared as a nation, but athletes who have proven their innocence have competed as neutral and two months ago in Doha they harvested six medals: the two golds of Maria Lasitskene and Anzhelika Sidorova , three silvers and a bronze.

Lasitskene, triple world champion in high jump and one of the most critical Russian voices against athletic authorities in his country and the lack of reforms for the fight against doping, immediately confirmed that he will continue to compete as neutral. «I had no doubt that this would be the outcome. I didn't believe those stories that tried to convince us that everything would be fine. It's a shame! ”He wrote on his Instagram account.

The hegemony in synchronized swimming

One of the points of greatest interest is synchronized swimming, where Russia has five Olympic Games in a row, winning the gold medals. In 2008 and 2012, as black beast of Spain. But again, if the most recent World Cups serve as a guide, Russia not only participated, but also destroyed as usual, with nine gold out of the 10 possible (it only escaped in the new modality of highlights , which is not Olympic).

In total, Russian athletes won 30 medals in the World Swimming Championships. Twelve were gold, because at nine o'clock the synchronized must be added those of Yulia Efimova and Anton Chupkov in 200 meters breaststroke, and that of Evgeny Rylov in 200 back.

All of them already competed in Rio. She, thanks to a last minute resource, although she received her two silver medals between boos for a 2013 positive; and they, who were bronze in Rio, would come out as big favorites in Tokyo. Chupkov broke the world record this summer in Gwangju and Rylov has won the gold of his specialty in the last two World Cups (three if we count the one with a short pool).

The situation is identical in artistic gymnastics, where Russia is also a great power. It was the country with more medals in the recent World Cup in Stuttgart (nine, although with two golds less than the United States) and has stars like Artur Dalaloyan , Nikita Nagornyy or Angelina Melnikova . Also in tennis, where he has three players in the top 25 of the ATP: Daniil Medvedev (5), Karen Khachanov (17) and Andrey Rublev (23). Or in basketball, where they became male bronze in 2012 and have a European star like Alexey Shved , and also ranked third on the podium in the women's competition in 2004 and 2008.

The sanction falls just as the Women's Handball World Cup is played, a discipline in which Russia was Olympic champion in 2016 and runner-up in Europe in 2018. Another question that leaves the sanction of the AMA open.

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