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WADA disqualified Russia for four years for violating doping rules. This means that athletes from Russia will not be able to compete under the national flag for the second Olympics in a row. The Russian Olympic Committee has previously stated that “pure” athletes will be able to go to the Games in Tokyo “as part of the OCD team.”

The Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) deprived Russia of the right to participate in major international competitions for four years, including the Olympics, TASS reports citing the WADA press service. The anti-doping agency also banned Russian officials and the leaders of the Russian Olympic and Paralympic Committees from attending sporting events, and Russia from accepting or applying for international competitions for four years.

WADA’s decision means that only “clean” athletes can be allowed to compete, and they won’t be able to use the Russian flag and anthem, the Associated Press writes. Russia may appeal this decision of the anti-doping agency to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The WADA Compliance Committee had previously recommended that Russia should be removed from sports for violating anti-doping rules. The newspaper The New York Times, citing sources,  wrote that in this case they can apply the same scheme that was used at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. Then, only "pure" athletes were allowed to the Games, who performed under the neutral (Olympic) flag and in the form of "Olympic athletes from Russia." In turn, the President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Podznyakov said that if the Russian team was removed from the Olympics, athletes would be "part of the team of the Russian Olympic Committee, since the ROC is beyond suspicion as an organization."

Earlier, the BBC reported that members of the WADA Athletes Committee called for the complete removal of Russian athletes from participating in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and in Beijing in 2022. The Committee considered the measure proposed by the International Olympic Committee, which stated that it was ready to allow "clean" athletes to perform under a neutral flag, not enough.