IOC reinstates Russian Olympic Committee
Sports •
medal-winning curler alexander krushelnitsky and bobsledder nadezhda sergeeva1 russia was reinstated by the international olympic committee ioc on wednesday after the remaining tests of the countrys athletes at the pyeongchang winter olympics were all returned negative1 the ioc reinstatement means athletes can compete under the russian flag and wear a national team uniform while the national anthem can be played at gold medal ceremonies1 it also means russian officials can take part at ioc meetings1 on sunday the ioc said russia which has repeatedly denied state involvement in doping would be automatically readmitted if there were no more doping violations from the games1 the final notification of all remaining test results from the olympic athlete from russia oar delegation has been received the ioc said in a statement on wednesday1 the ioc can confirm that all the remaining results are negative1 therefore as stated in the executive board decision of feb. 25 the suspension of the russian olympic committee is automatically lifted with immediate effect1 the decision was announced earlier on wednesday by roc president alexander zhukov on state television1 the russian olympic committee has had its rights fully restored he said. its a decision of the utmost importance for us1 a team of 168 russians competed as part of a neutral olympic athlete from russia oar team in pyeongchang but two of them failed drug tests1 russians competed as neutrals at the games after the ioc suspended the countrys olympic committee roc in december saying it had found evidence of an unprecedented systematic manipulation of the anti-doping system1 they had all been required to prove they were clean before the games1 under the neutrality rules the russians were unable to wear national uniforms or have their anthem played at medal presentations1 however on sunday the mens ice hockey team sang the national anthem after winning gold1 widespread doping by russian athletes at the 2014 sochi winter games was exposed by an independent report for the world anti-doping agency wada1 wada said in a statement on wednesday that russia remained non-compliant with its code1 this is because it has not yet met the necessary criteria of rusadas russian anti-doping agencys roadmap to compliance following russias proven systemic manipulation of the doping control process1 russia also remains suspended from world athletics1 forty-three russian athletes were disqualified from the 2014 sochi winter games and banned by the ioc1 this was after the olympic body followed up the wada investigation although 28 of those had their results reinstated and bans overturned after appealing to the court of arbitration for sport cas1 those 28 however were not invited to pyeongchang by the ioc.reutersnan1