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SEOUL: The World Anti-Doping Agency hurt Russia’s hopes of competing at next year’s Winter Olympics by refusing to reinstate the country’s suspended anti-doping operation.
At its meeting Thursday in South Korea, WADA said two key requirements for reinstatement had still not been fulfilled: That Russia publicly accept results of an investigation that detailed state-sponsored doping, and that the country allow access to urine samples collected during the time of the cheating.
Russia has depicted the doping program that marred the Sochi Games in 2014 as the work of individuals, not the government. Alexander Zhukov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee and also a member of the International Olympic Committee, doubled down on that at Thursday’s meeting, telling WADA members, “We absolutely deny the existence of a state-sponsored doping system.”
The IOC has ultimate say on Russia’s status at next year’s Olympics. WADA’s decision and Zhukov’s statement will play into decisions the IOC makes at meetings next month, where executive board members will discuss investigations into individual Russian doping cases from the Sochi Olympics, and into the allegations of state-sponsored manipulation of the anti-doping program.
Before last year’s Summer Olympics, the IOC refused to issue a blanket ban on the Russian team, instead allowing individual sports federations to determine eligibility of the athletes.
In the case of the Winter Games, the IOC has already vacated results of six Russian athletes from the Sochi Olympics and banned them from next year’s Pyeongchang Games, with several more cases still to be decided.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to news of the IOC bans by claiming it is being manipulated by US interests that want to use doping scandals to embarrass his government ahead of next year’s elections in Russia.
In discussing Thursday’s decision, WADA director general Olivier Niggli said RUSADA has made improvements but hasn’t hit the mark on the most important ones.
“The road map with these conditions were exchanged with the Russians over 25 times in the last 18 months,” Niggli said.