MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. Russian athletes will not be feeling deprived of their national identity at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as the work on their outfits entered the final stage, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), said on Wednesday.
"We are in the final stage of the approval of our outfits for the Winter Games in Beijing," Pozdnyakov told journalists.
"Our Tokyo [Olympic Games] experience fills us with confidence that all athletes would not be feeling deprived of their national identity," the ROC chief added.
At the recently completed 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Japan’s Tokyo, Russian athletes competed under the flag and logo of the Russian National Olympic Committee (ROC) instead of the Russian national flag and state emblem.
Additionally, the national anthem of Russia was under sanctions at the Olympics in Japan and so ROC athletes received their gold medals to the tune of the First Piano Concerto by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
In late 2017, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) over doping abuse allegations, but allowed clean Russian athletes to participate in the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang under the Olympic flag and in the neutral status of an Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR).
Russian athletes finished in the 13th place of the overall medals standings at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang having won two gold, six silver and nine bronze medals.
Sanctions against Russian sports
On December 17, 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland’s Lausanne partially upheld WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency) previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports.
Following the CAS decision, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for a two-year period.
The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for a period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022.
2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing
The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are scheduled to be held between February 4 and 20.
During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022).
Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Olympics and Paralympics in a tight race, beating Kazakhstan’s Almaty in 2015, by chalking up 44 votes against its rival’s 40.