Russia banned from 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea as punishment for its elaborate state-sponsored doping program and manipulation with urine samples at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. For the first time in history, the entire country is banned from Olympics for a sport-related offense.
The International Olympic Committee announced its decision on December 5, 2017. In particular:
1) Russian team is banned from the 2018 Olympic Games.
2) Those several Russian athletes who can prove they are clean can participate in the Olympic Games under the Olympic flag.
3) Not a single official from the Russian ministry of sport is allowed to attend the 2018 Olympic Games, while Russia’s ex-minister of sport Mutko and the head of Russia’s Olympic committee Zhukov are banned from Olympic Games for life.
4) Russia must reimburse the costs incurred by the IOC on the investigations in the amount of 15 million US dollars.
German channel ARD made a series of documentaries about Russia’s state-sponsored doping program, which actually triggered all these investigations. Watch them here:
