On Friday, September 23, the second meeting of the Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA in 2022 was held in Sydney, Australia. It, among other things, noted that an increase in the number of sanctions against Russian athletes is expected, since many cases are still pending.
It also became known the total number of sentences handed down to athletes of the Russian Federation based on the database of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory (LIMS):
“The Executive Committee was informed that 17 additional cases between May 2022 and the end of July 2022 were successfully convicted, bringing the total to 138 cases so far,” the agency said in a statement.
As you know, in December 2019, the WADA executive committee recognized that the Russian anti-doping organization RUSADA does not comply with the anti-doping code and suspended Russian athletes for four years from international tournaments, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
True, a year later, on December 17, 2020, the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) softened WADA sanctions and reduced the suspension of Russians to two years: Russian athletes cannot compete in major international competitions under the Russian flag until December 16, 2022.
But for this, by the end of this year (or in agreement with WADA), RUSADA must fulfill a number of conditions, including an audit, in order to restore the status of compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code.