RUSSIA has been banned from all major sporting events for the next four years.
This means that the Russia flag and anthem will not be allowed at events such as the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo and football’s 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
But athletes who can prove they were not part of the doping scandal will be allowed to participate under a neutral flag.
Reacting to the sanctions imposed by the World Anti- Doping Agency (Wada), the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the ban was part of “chronic anti-Russian hysteria.”
Wada’s executive committee voted unanimously to impose the ban on Russia in a meeting on Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland.
It comes in the wake of Russia’s Anti Doping Agency (Rusada) being declared non-compliant for manipulating laboratory data handed over to investigators in January 2019.
