If US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief Travis Tygart gets his way, Russia could see all its athletes being completely barred from the next Olympics due to ongoing doping scandals.
Since 2015 Russian athletes have been competing in athletics under neutral status following a ban from World Athletics (formerly IAAF) after a state sponsored doping scandal was uncovered.
Only athletes that managed to pass World Athletics doping review board testing criteria would be able to compete but only under neutral status.
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Tygart suggested that the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) “get tougher” on Russia blatant disregard for regulations.
“Wada must get tougher and impose the full restriction on Russian athlete participation in the Olympics that the rules allow”.
He went on to add that:
“It is sad when a country’s athletes suffer for the fraud of the governmental and sport system they represent. However, the failure to stand up to Russia’s five-year flaunting of the rules would cause even more harm to athletes in and outside of Russia. The time for the toughest penalty available is now.”
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Even after the revelations of the 2015 doping scandal, Russia continued breaching the anti-doping regulations during the Rio 2016 Olympics and Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics. The IAAF were forced to halt Russia’s reinstatement when senior Russian officials were suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) over violations involving Russian athlete Danil Lysenko