Doping: Russia banned from Tokyo Olympics

Russia’s national team will be missing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after the World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA) handed down a four year ban over doping.

Russia will also not be able to attend the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and other major sporting events during the period.

WADA accused Moscow of falsifying data from its anti-doping laboratory.

However, Russian sportsmen and women would be allowed to compete at the two Olympics only if they can demonstrate that they were not part of what WADA believes was a state-sponsored system of doping.

A spokesperson for WADA, whose executive committee is meeting in Lausanne, said: “The full list of recommendations by Compliance Committee have been unanimously accepted.”

The ban was long anticipated.

Under the ban, Russian government officials would be barred from attending any major events, while the country would lose the right to host, or even bid, for tournaments.

Full disclosure of data from the Moscow laboratory was a key condition of Russia’s controversial reinstatement by WADA in September 2018.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) had been suspended for nearly three years previously over revelations of a vast state-supported doping programme.