WADA to take Russia case to CAS
The World Anti-Doping Agency will take its case for the exclusion of Russia from international sporting competitions to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) “by the weekend”, a WADA official told AFP on Wednesday.
CAS, the world’s highest sporting court, will have to decide whether to confirm the four-year ban WADA imposed on Russia last month, or listen to Russia’s case against the sanction.
WADA decided on December 9 to ban Russia for four years from participating in international events, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and the 2022 football World Cup, over what it considers a state-sponsored programme of doping.
WADA says Russia “manipulated” data from an anti-doping laboratory in Moscow, the latest episode in a scandal which started with the revelation in 2015 of long-term institutional doping that involved senior officials, secret agents and trafficked urine vials.
Under the sanctions, Russian sportsmen and women will still be allowed to compete at the Olympics this summer but only if they can demonstrate that they were not part of the doping network.
This was also the case at the Pyeongchang winter Games in 2018.
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