RUSSIA BANNED FROM OLYMPICS
OH, Mother.
Russia has been banned from the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea as punishment for its elaborate state-sponsored doping scheme at the games four years ago, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday.
Russian athletes will still be allowed to compete, but they will have to prove they are clean and vie for medals under the neutral Olympic flag, the officials said.
In addition, Russia’s flag will not fly in the opening ceremony, its national anthem will not play and its government officials will not be welcome.
“It’s completely unprecedented,” Roger Pielke Jr., director of the Sports Governance Center at the University of Colorado, told the Daily News.
He said entire countries have been barred, including Afghanistan for its treatment of women under the Taliban and South Africa for apartheid. But those offenses were “non-sports related,” he said. “Now cheating in sports has resulted in a nation being banned. It’s absolutely huge.”
The ruling was tantamount to a guilty verdict for Russia following accusations it executed a systematic pattern of drug testing sabotage at the Sochi Games it hosted in 2014.
Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of Russia’s antidoping lab, previously told The New York Times he helped dozens of Russian athletes replace tainted urine samples with clean ones at the Sochi games.
The film “Icarus,” which details Rodchenkov’s public confession and move to the U.S., was released in August and undoubtedly played a role in the decision announced Tuesday.
Rodchenkov has claimed he developed a drug cocktail for Russian athletes and worked with a group that secretly swiped dirty urine samples from the Olympic anti-doping lab in the dead of night via a hole in a wall.
He said Russian intelligence devised a way to surreptitiously open and reseal the supposedly tamper-proof glass bottles used in the lab. The doctor reportedly is under U.S. protection as Russia seeks his extradition.
The IOC further imposed a fine of $15 million on the Russian Olympic Committee.
But in a move some considered a concession, the IOC said any Russian athletes cleared to compete in South Korea would be referred to as an “Olympic Athlete from Russia,” as opposed to simply a neutral party.
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously suggested he might call for a national boycott of the games, saying it would be humiliating for Russia to compete without symbols of its national pride.