Winter Olympics: Russian athletes BANNED from competing under national flag
RUSSIAN athletes have been banned from representing their country at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
GETTY
The International Olympic Committee have banned the Russian Olympic Committee from sending athletes to the Games in Pyeongchang.
Russian athletes will be able to compete but not under their national committee.
Instead, they will compete under the tag of "Olympic Athlete of Russia”.
The IOC also decided to suspend ROC president Alexander Zhukov as an IOC member given that his membership is linked to his position as ROC President.
An IOC statement reads: “The IOC executive board today studied and discussed the findings of the commission led by the former president of Switzerland, Samuel Schmid, addressing the systematic manipulation of the anti-doping system in Russia […]”
GETTY
“The conclusions of the Schmid Report, on both factual and legal aspects, confirmed ‘the systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia, through the Disappearing Positive Methodology and during the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, as well as the various levels of administrative, legal and contractual responsibility, resulting from the failure to respect the respective obligations of the various entities involved’.”
The IOC have ruled:
- To suspend the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) with immediate effect.
- To invite individual Russian athletes under strict conditions (see below) to the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. These invited athletes will participate, be it in individual or team competitions, under the name “Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR)”. They will compete with a uniform bearing this name and under the Olympic Flag. The Olympic Anthem will be played in any ceremony.
- Not to accredit any official from the Russian Ministry of Sport for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.
- To exclude the then Minister of Sport, Mr Vitaly Mutko, and his then Deputy Minister, Mr. Yuri Nagornykh, from any participation in all future Olympic Games.
- To withdraw Mr Dmitry Chernyshenko, the former CEO of the Organising Committee Sochi 2014, from the Coordination Commission Beijing 2022.
- To suspend ROC President Alexander Zhukov as an IOC Member, given that his membership is linked to his position as ROC President.
Winter Olympics 2014: Sochi
Thu, February 13, 2014All the action from Sochi Winter Olympics 2014. Some of Britain's biggest snow sporting names are set to take to the slopes to battle it out for the gold medals.
Finland's Otso Raisanen competes in the Men's Freestyle Skiing Slopestyle qualifications at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park during the Sochi Winter Olympics on February 13, 2014.
- The IOC reserves the right to take measures against and sanction other individuals implicated in the system.
- The ROC to reimburse the costs incurred by the IOC on the investigations and to contribute to the establishment of the Independent Testing Authority (ITA) for the total sum of USD 15 million, to build the capacity and integrity of the global anti-doping system.
- The IOC may partially or fully lift the suspension of the ROC from the commencement of the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 provided these decisions are fully respected and implemented by the ROC and by the invited athletes and officials.
- The IOC will issue operational guidelines for the implementation of these decisions.
In response, the head of Russia's curling federation on Tuesday slammed the IOC decision to ban Russia from the Winter Olympics as unprofessional.
"I consider that the IOC's decision is unprofessional," the federation's president, Dmitry Svishchev, told Reuters.
"I am profoundly convinced that it was made under pressure. Someone needed Russia not to participate in the Games."
