(CMR) Russian athletes will not be able to use their country's name, flag, and anthem at the next two Olympic games and world championships held over the next two years.
This decision was made on Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The ruling was made following accusations that Russian state authorities altered and deleted parts of the Moscow testing laboratory database before handing it over to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigators last year.
Forty-three Russian athletes and their lawyers participated in a four-day hearing held in Lausanne, Switzerland, last month.
The ruling also blocked Russia from hosting major sporting events for two years.
Russian athletes and teams will still be allowed to compete at next year’s Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing if they are not implicated in doping or covering up positive tests.
The athletes are allowed to wear the colors of their country's flag and can have Russia written on their uniforms if the words “Neutral Athlete” or equivalents like “Neutral Team” have equal prominence, the court said.
The ruling allows Russian government officials, including President Vladimir Putin, to attend major sporting events if invited by the host nation’s head of state.
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