ZCZC
BSP-19
OLY-RUS-DOPING-WADA-RUSSIA-FBL
Russia plans to compete in Tokyo under national flag
MOSCOW, Dec 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The Russian Olympic Committee said
Tuesday it expected that Russian athletes would take part in the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics Games under the national flag despite a four-year doping ban.
“The Russian Olympic Committee is a rightful member of the Olympic
movement,” its president Stanislav Pozdnyakov told reporters after a meeting.
“Therefore we have every reason to believe that we will put together a
team for Tokyo and do everything in our power for this team to perform under
the Russian tricolour.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency on December 10 banned Russia for four years
from major global events, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022
World Cup in Qatar, over manipulated doping data.
WADA accused Moscow of falsifying data from a doping testing laboratory
that was handed over to investigators earlier this year.
Russia has said it would contest the ban, with President Vladimir Putin
slamming the sanctions as politically motivated.
Speaking on Tuesday, Pozdnyakov confirmed that the Russian Olympic
Committee would support the decision of its supervisory board to defy the
WADA ban.
Last week RUSADA anti-doping agency said it had “made a decision not to
agree” with the four-year ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s decision.
The decision will have to be communicated to WADA before the end of the
month, triggering the appeal process in the Lausanne-based Court of
Arbitration for Sport.
Under the sanctions, Russian sportsmen and women will still be allowed to
compete at the Olympics next year and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, but
only as neutrals and if they can demonstrate that they were not part of what
WADA believes was a state-sponsored system of doping.
BSS/AFP/BZC/2013HRS