Russia banned from Olympic Games over doping scandal
- Wada bans Russia from Olympics for four years
- Laboratory data tampering behind latest scandal
Russia was banned from the Olympics and world championships in a range of sports for four years on Monday after the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) ruled to punish it for manipulating laboratory data, a Wada spokesman said.
Wada’s executive committee took the decision after it concluded 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 Wada committee’s decision to punish Russia with a ban was unanimous, the spokesman said.
Russia, which has tried to showcase itself as a global sports power, has been embroiled in doping scandals since a 2015 report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics.
Its 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.
Monday’s sanctions had been recommended by Wada’s compliance review committee in response to the doctored laboratory data provided by Moscow earlier this year.