Russia fears missing Olympics over doping data tampering
The World Anti-Doping Agency is giving Russia three weeks to explain possible signs of tampering with data from its doping laboratory, an accusation which Russian officials fear could lead to a ban from next year’s Olympics. WADA heard about the possible tampering at its executive committee meeting Monday in Tokyo. Turning over the data was a key requirement for the reinstatement of Russia’s anti-doping agency, and WADA has formally opened a compliance procedure that could lead to a new ban if the data was manipulated.
Russia was already required to send an officially neutral, smaller-than-usual squad of “Olympic Athletes from Russia” to last year’s Winter Olympics as a punishment from the International Olympic Committee for doping offenses.
The data was handed over to WADA in January after Russia breached an earlier deadline of Dec. 31, 2018. The data has been used to support suspensions against 12 Russian weightlifters, including 10 former world or European championship medalists, and cases in the winter sport of biathlon. WADA said it would continue to pursue cases while this latest review is ongoing.
The Russian track federation said Monday it knows of 14 open investigations against its athletes, including the former Olympic gold medalists Anna Chicherova and Elena Lashmanova. The federation said it found out during failed attempts to secure neutral status, which would have allowed them to compete at the world championships.
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