RUSSIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (ROC) President STANISLAV POZDNYAKOV has admitted the country’s participation at Tokyo 2020 is “under threat” after the WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY (WADA) uncovered “inconsistencies” in data retrieved from the MOSCOW LABORATORY.
POZDNYAKOV said the situation was “very serious” after WADA opened a compliance procedure against the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), which could lead to Russia being banned from next year’s Olympic Games.
Stricter rules for non-compliance are available to WADA under the new standards, including preventing countries from participating at major events.
WADA has given RUSADA and the Russian Sports Ministry three weeks to explain the discrepancies following allegations the country manipulated the data.
They will have to address the differences between the Laboratory Information Management System database provided by a whistleblower in October 2017 and the version WADA extracted from the facility in January.
Compliance Review Committee (CRC) chairman JONATHAN TAYLOR said a team of forensic experts, who analysed the data, could find no “innocent reason” for the inconsistencies.
TAYLOR warned the CRC will pursue the strongest available sanctions if deliberate manipulation is proven, although their recommendation would have to be approved by the WADA Executive Committee.
“The Russian Olympic team’s prospects of taking part in the Games in Tokyo next year could be under threat,” POZDNYAKOV said.
