Tokyo Olympics 2020: Russia banned from major sporting championships

Russia has been banned from the Olympics and other major world championships, after sporting officials decided to punish it for tampering with doping-related laboratory data in another blow to its already tarnished sporting reputation.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) imposed a four-year ban on Russia participating in a range of top-flight sporting tournaments, including the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and 2022 soccer World Cup.

WADA's executive committee took the decision, after concluding that Moscow had tampered with laboratory data by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.

The decision to punish Russia with a ban was unanimous and showed the agency's determination to act resolutely to tackle the Russian doping crisis, WADA president Craig Reedie said.

"For too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport," Reedie said.

"The blatant breach by the Russian authorities of RUSADA's reinstatement conditions... demanded a robust response. That is exactly what has been delivered today."

Russia, which has tried to showcase itself as a global sports power, has been embroiled in doping scandals since a 2015 WADA report found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics.

Doping woes have grown since, with many of its athletes sidelined from the past two Olympics and the country stripped of its flag altogether at last year's Pyeongchang Winter Games, as punishment for state-sponsored doping cover-ups at the 2014 Sochi Games.

The latest sanctions, which also include a four-year ban on Russia hosting major sporting events, were recommended by WADA's compliance review committee, in response to the doctored laboratory data provided by Moscow earlier this year.

One of the conditions for the reinstatement of Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, which was suspended in 2015, after the athletics doping scandal, but reinstated last year, had been that Moscow provide an authentic copy of the laboratory data.

The sanctions effectively strip the agency of its accreditation.

RUSADA head Yuri Ganus could not be reached for comment. Deputy Margarita Pakhnotskaya told the TASS news agency that WADA's decision had been expected.

An influential Russian lawmaker condemned the ban as an anti-Russian campaign to remove competition in international sports.

"This is a means of pushing Russian competitors out of international sports," said the deputy speaker of Russia's lower house of Parliament, Pyotr Tolstoy.

"We need to reinstate our rights, annul [this decision] and renegotiate."

Last month, Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov attributed the discrepancies in the laboratory data to technical issues.

Russia's punishment leaves the door open for clean Russian athletes to compete at major international sporting events - without their flag or anthem - for the next four years, which they did at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

If RUSADA appeals WADA's punishment, the case will be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

While the United Kingdom Anti-Doping Agency and others were quick to applaud the sanctions, some thought they did not go far enough.

"I wanted sanctions that cannot be watered-down," said WADA vice president Linda Helleland on Twitter. "I am afraid this is not enough,

"We owe it to the clean athletes to implement the sanctions as strong as possible."

A UEFA spokesman said the European soccer body did not have any immediate comment.

Reuters