Swiss court rejects Russia’s appeal against Olympic doping ban

 

A Swiss court upheld doping sanctions that will prevent Russian athletes from competing at major international events under the country’s flag, but halved the period of the ban to two years from four.
The ruling on Thursday will leave Russian athletes without their flag and national anthem at next year’s Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and at the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had originally banned Russia from the world’s top sporting events for four years in December 2019, but the sanction could not be implemented until the end of the appeal process.The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said the sanctions, which also bar Russia from hosting or bidding for top sporting events, would come into force on Thursday and end on December 16, 2022.
Russia’s doping woes have snowballed since a 2015 report commissioned by WADA found evidence of mass doping among the country’s track and field athletes.
Investigative journalist Hajo Seppelt, one the journalists who broke systemic doping scandal in Russia, told Al Jazeera: “It was still clear Russia has cheated, manipulated doping systems, sport systems for a lot of years at least since 2012 or maybe earlier.”
Russians will also not be able to be appointed to or sit on committees or serve as board members at organisations that must abide by the WADA code.
WADA had accused Russia of planting fake evidence and of deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.
Russian authorities say the inconsistencies in the data were purely technical and not the result of tampering.