Russian sports officials have criticised the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) committee’s recommendations of banning the country from the Olympics for four years and said that they will do everything in their capacity to make their team compete in Tokyo under the Russian flag.
“It’s sad. I can only call these recommendations unfair,” Umar Kremlev, head of Russia’s boxing federation, said in a statement, reports Xinhua news agency.
WADA’s Independent Compliance Review Committee recommended the ban which means Russia could miss out on the next two Olympic Games and world championships in a wide range of sports.
Under the latest recommendations, some Russians without a history of doping could be cleared to compete in major international events as neutrals.
Stanislav Pozdnyakov, President of Russia’s Olympic Committee, said at the committee’s annual assembly in Moscow that all their clean athletes — those who were not involved or are not suspected of doping — will take part in the Games as part of our Olympic team.
Russia was banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from last year’s Pyeongchang Winter Games as punishment for alleged state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. But some Russian athletes with no history of doping were cleared to compete as neutrals.