Russia could
miss out the 2020 Tokyo Olympics should the recommendation by the World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) panel be adopted.
The panel
has recommended that Russia’s drug-testing authority should be declared
non-compliant with international rules.
WADA said on
Friday that its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) had recommended that the
Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) be suspended again when the global
anti-doping watchdog’s Executive Committee meets in Paris on December 9.
AFP writes
that should WADA chiefs adopt the recommendation, Russia faces severe sanctions
including a possible ban from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The CRC
issued its recommendation after asking Russia to explain
“inconsistencies” in laboratory data handed over by Moscow to WADA
investigators in January.
Full
disclosure of data from the Moscow laboratory was a key condition of Russia’s
controversial reinstatement by WADA in September 2018, reports AFP news.
RUSADA had
been suspended for nearly three years over revelations of a vast, state-backed
doping regime which including a systematic conspiracy to switch tainted samples
at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
WADA had
previously warned Russia would face the “most stringent sanctions” if
any of the data handed over was found to have been tampered with.
The CRC has suggested
“serious consequences in line with the International Standard for Code
Compliance by Signatories”, according to WADA.
Tokyo Olympics
The 2020 Olympics
are scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, with
preliminary events in some sports beginning on 22 July.
Tokyo was
selected as the host city during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires,
Argentina on 7 September 2013.
This will be
the second time that Tokyo has hosted the Summer Olympic Games, the first being
in 1964, and also the first city in Asia to host the summer Olympic Games twice.
The 2020
Games will be the second of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia,
the first being the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea,
and the next being the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
New and
additional competitions will be introduced at the Summer Olympics, including
3×3 basketball, freestyle BMX and Madison cycling, as well as further mixed
events.
Other games
to make debut will be karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding. There
will also be the return of baseball and softball, both removed from the summer
programme after 2008.
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