Russia banned from 2018 Winter Olympics over doping

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The International Olympic Committee has decided to ban Russia from the 2018 Winter Games, saying it found evidence of “unprecedented systematic manipulation” of the country's anti-doping system.

But the suspension announced on Tuesday will not apply to "innocent" Russian athletes who will be allowed to compete as individuals under an Olympic flag.

The sanction was the toughest ever leveled by the IOC for drug cheating and was delivered just 65 days ahead of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The IOC also decided to suspend Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) president Alexander Zhukov as an IOC member, while Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, sports minister at the time of the Sochi Games, was also banned from any future participation at the Olympics.

Former Switzerland President Samuel Schmid, who is the chairman of IOC Inquiry Commission into alleged Russian doping at Sochi 2014 games told a news conference that his commission's report focusing on allegations of government involvement in Russian doping at the Sochi Games confirmed “the systematic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system.”

IOC president Thomas Bach accused Russia of "perpetrating an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport."

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach (L) and chair of IOC Inquiry Commission into alleged Russian doping at Sochi 2014 Samuel Schmid address the media in Lausanne. /AFP Photo

A report by the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) and two subsequent IOC investigations have said that Russian athletes took part in an elaborate drug cheating program which peaked during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Mounting evidence suggests that the scheme involved senior government officials, including from the sports ministry, with help from secret state agents.

Zhukov said he "apologized" to the IOC on Tuesday for the "anti-doping violations" committed in his country in recent years.

The IOC had the option of hitting Russia with a blanket ban, the so-called nuclear option that was applied to apartheid-era South Africa from 1964 to 1988.

The IOC's decision to choose a more moderate path does offer some Russian athletes a route to competing in the Games – although that will be by invitation only and dependent on a stringent testing program.

The IOC banned Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko for life. /AFP Photo

"The IOC, at its absolute discretion, will ultimately determine the athletes to be invited from the list," the committee said in a statement.

No Russian athlete with a previous doping violation will be allowed to compete and no official who had a leadership role at Sochi 2014 will be invited to Pyeongchang.

Those athletes who do go to the Games, which start on February 9, will participate under the name "Olympic Athlete from Russia."

The country's flag will not fly at any 2018 ceremony, the IOC also said in a statement.

Bach said those measures amounted to "proportional sanctions for this systemic manipulation" committed by Russia.

The US Olympic Committee praised the IOC's "strong and principled decision."

A supporter stands with a Russian flag in front of the logo of the International Olympic Committee headquarters. /AFP Photo

"There were no perfect options, but this decision will clearly make it less likely that this ever happens again," it said.

The head of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, Alfons Hoermann, called it "historic."

Boycott?

Russian officials have previously met doping accusations with defiance.

Mutko has said the allegations were an attempt "to create an image of an axis of evil" against his country while Putin has warned that a Russia ban would cause "serious harm to the Olympic movement."

He said forcing Russian athletes to compete under a neutral flag would amount to a national "humiliation."

That has fueled speculation that Moscow would instruct its athletes to boycott the compromise solution decided by the IOC.

"An Olympic boycott has never achieved anything," Bach said, insisting that given the window left open for clean athletes to compete, a boycott was unnecessary.

Speaking to Russian TV, the president of Russia's Bobsleigh Federation, Alexander Zubkov said: "This is humiliation. This is a punch in the stomach."

Russia has been stripped of 11 of their 33 Sochi medals for cheating, meaning they have lost their position at the top of the medals table to Norway.

Exclusive interview with Chinese IOC member

CGTN talked to IOC member Yang Yang, who is part of the disciplinary commission team that approved the Russian Olympic ban, about the recent development.

Yang said it was a very difficult decision to make.

"We worked for 17 months since I was appointed as a member of this disciplinary commission to investigate the Russian doping scandal regarding the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi," she noted.

"But I think the IOC made the right decision based on the facts, and to protect the integrity of the Olympics."

To prove an athlete is clean, a procedure had to be followed, Yang explained.

"The IOC sets up an independent testing authority, and they will make sure the athletes are clean, which goes through all processes."

(with contribution from CGTN’s Wang Meng.)

Source(s): AFP