World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) expels Russia from international competitions for four years

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) unanimously decided today to expel Russia from international competitions for four years for manipulating the sports database of the Moscow Laboratory, which leaves this sports powerhouse out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

These manipulations make it impossible to verify whether 145 of the 298 suspicious Russian athletes included in the database violated anti-doping rules between 2012 and 2015, so WADA believes that Russia has tried to cover up possible positive cases.

The sanction, which Russia could appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), prevents Russian athletes, among other things, from competing under their flag for four years in the Olympics and World Championships, and the country from hosting international competitions on its territory.