CAS issued a scathing 186-page decision Thursday accusing Russian authorities of doubling down on doping cover-ups and attempting to further obstruct the anti-doping process." The Russian authorities manipulated anti-doping testing data by "deliberate, sophisticated, and audacious changes, modifications, and deletions.

However, CAS did not agree to the four-year ban recommended by the World Anti-Doping Agency and instead decided to shorten the ban to two years, which would include the next two Olympic Games but not the Summer Games to be held in Paris in 2024.

WADA President Witold Baninka expressed disappointment that CAS did not agree to all of the proposed penalties. He said, "We felt that they were commensurate with the egregious nature of the crimes committed by the Russian authorities in their attempt to conceal the details of the institutionalized doping scheme. [The CAS's] entire reasoned decision clearly demonstrates that WADA has succeeded in proving and exposing the audacious attempts of the Russian authorities to manipulate the Moscow Institute's data in order to obstruct our investigation. We are pleased that this landmark decision supports the strong investigative and legal framework WADA has developed in recent years to support the anti-doping system."

The case dates back to before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, when athletes' samples were swapped for "clean" samples (sample swap) and doping positives "disappeared" in the laboratory's computer system (LIMS). The German TV station ARD first publicized the doping scheme in December 2014, after the Games. [Later, when whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov claimed the existence of a "sophisticated state-sponsored doping program in Russian sports," WADA commissioned an independent report, authored by Richard McLaren, to investigate. As a result, some Russians, primarily in track and field, were banned from competing in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, including members of Team Pursuit.

In order to be reinstated, WADA requested that RUSADA provide access to the LIMS system to identify doped athletes and exclude others, but when RUSADA provided the data after much delay, they tried to frame Rodchenkov The data was manipulated in an attempt to.

In its decision to ban the flying of the Russian flag at the World Championships and Olympics, CAS accused Russia of cowardly tactics.

"As WADA submitted, rather than recognizing the opportunity to draw a line and come clean in a scandal that has plagued the international sporting community for years and drained resources, the Russian authorities unfortunately saw this as an opportunity to misrepresent their fabricated defense strategy and mitigate or avoid the consequences of their doping scheme. . regarded it as an opportunity to mitigate or avoid the consequences of the doping scheme," the CAS panel wrote.

"Rather than providing access to the data in the spirit of transparency and data integrity reflected in the correspondence, in late 2018 and January 2019 Russian authorities engaged in extensive manipulation of Moscow data.

"Crudely put, the non-compliance in this case is an attempt to cover up the evidence of doping and anti-detection schemes described in the McLaren Report."

"When the doping scheme cover-up began to unravel, the solution adopted by the Russian authorities was to prove innocence . was not to come clean, but rather to double down by attempting to cover up the cover-up."

The Russian authorities were not only trying to cover up the cover-up, they were also trying to cover up the fact that they had been involved in a doping scheme.

CAS also noted that "these manipulations show that the Russian authorities are still willing to sabotage and corrupt the anti-doping system." 0]

However, they defended Russia's decision not to extend the ban until Paris 2024, noting that "WADA has been seeking a four-year signing result, which would have meant that the ban would have been in effect until the end of the year." However, they pointed out that this four-year period was only intended to cover one summer and one winter Olympic/Paralympic Games each.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Tokyo Olympics were postponed to this year.