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9 Dec 2019

‘Russia pariah of world sport’, says sports writer David Walsh

The World Anti-Doping Agency has banned Russia from all global sport for the next four years.

The ruling means Russia’s flag and anthem will not be allowed at next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games or at the football World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

Russian athletes who can prove they were not involved in the doping scandal could be allowed to complete under a neutral flag. The agency found that Russia tampered with laboratory data by deleting files on failed doping tests.

David Walsh is the chief sports writer at The Sunday Times and was the journalist who lead the investigation into doping within cycling that exposed Lance Armstrong and has written regularly about the Russian doping story.