{"id":2603,"date":"2020-12-17T03:29:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T03:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=140203"},"modified":"2020-12-17T03:29:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T03:29:22","slug":"decision-expected-on-russias-appeal-of-ban-from-major-sporting-events-over-suspected-doping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/17\/decision-expected-on-russias-appeal-of-ban-from-major-sporting-events-over-suspected-doping\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision Expected On Russia’s Appeal Of Ban From Major Sporting Events Over Suspected Doping"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on December 17 will announce its verdict on Russia’s appeal of a four-year ban from major international sporting events imposed over allegations of state-sanctioned doping.<\/p>\n
The court, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, said on December 16 that a news release including the details of the decision will be published on the CAS website at 4 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n
The announcement is awaited with interest by the International Olympic Committee and sports federations such as that expect a clear directive from the court.<\/p>\n
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) imposed the ban in December 2019 when it declared the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) noncompliant after it was accused of manipulating drug testing data.<\/p>\n
WADA\u2019s executive committee concluded that laboratory data had been tampered with by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.<\/p>\n
Providing the data had been an important condition after WADA reinstated RUSADA in 2018 after an original suspension 2015 over wide-ranging doping practices.<\/p>\n
The ban dealt a serious blow to Russian athletes training for major global sporting events, including the postponed Tokyo Olympics scheduled to take place in 2021 and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n
The ban applies to Russian athletes, government officials and their representatives, and means the Russian flag may not fly at any major event staged during the four-year period.<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the ban at the time as a “politically motivated” ruling that “contradicted” the Olympic charter.<\/p>\n
Russia protested its innocence and appealed to the CAS, which conducted a four-day hearing last month.<\/p>\n
The doping scandal erupted in 2016 when Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory, blew the whistle over state-backed doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.<\/p>\n
Rodchenkov fled to the United States in 2016 and provided evidence of the doping conspiracy to WADA.<\/p>\n
An independent WADA report confirmed the allegations, leading to partial bans for Russia at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
In August the outspoken head of RUSADA, Yury Ganus, was fired. Ganus had been a fierce critic of Russian sports authorities, saying not enough was being done to clean sports of performance-enhancing drug use.<\/p>\n