IOC bans Russia from 2018 Winter Olympics over systematic doping
IOC slaps ban over doping, bars it from 2018 Olympics
Lausanne, Dec. 6: Russia was banned on Tuesday from the 2018 Winter Games by the International Olympic Committee over its stateorchestrated doping programme, but clean Russian athletes will be allowed to compete under an Olympic flag.
The sanction was the toughest ever levelled by the IOC for drug cheating and came just 65 days ahead of the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
In announcing the decision, IOC president Thomas Bach accused Russia of “perpetrating an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport”.
An explosive report by the World Anti- doping Agency and two subsequent IOC investigations have confirmed that Russian athletes took part in an elaborate drug cheating programme which peaked during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Mounting evidence has indicated that the scheme involved senior government officials, including from the sports ministry, with help from secret state agents.
The IOC also banned Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko — who was sports minister during the Sochi Games — for life.
Mutko is currently the head of the organising committee for the 2018 World Cup, which Russia is hosting.
Attention will quickly turn to see if football’s world governing body Fifa allows the scandal- tainted ally of President Vladimir Putin to retain his senior World Cup role.
In a statement, FIFA said that it had “taken note” of the IOC decision but it had “no impact on the preparations” for Russia 2018.
Meanwhile, the International Committee also suspended the Russian Olympic Committee and its chief Alexander Zhukov. Zhukov who said that he “apologised” to the IOC on Tuesday for the “anti- doping violations” committed in his country in recent years.