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Doping scandal in Russian sports

IBU to discuss IOC decisions on Russia’s 2018 Olympic participation on December 10

The IOC announced its decision on December 5 to suspend the Russian national team from taking part in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games

Team Russia seen during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi EPA-EFE/BARBARA WALTON

Team Russia seen during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi

© EPA-EFE/BARBARA WALTON

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. The International Biathlon Union (IBU) will convene an extraordinary session on December 10 to discuss decisions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding Russia’s participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, the IBU announced in its statement on Wednesday.

An IOC commission, led by Samuel Schmid, established that Russia allegedly employed a system of manipulations with doping samples collected from national athletes.

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Based on the commission’s findings, the IOC announced its decision on Tuesday night to suspend the Russian national team from taking part in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang over multiple doping abuse allegations. The IOC, however, stated that doping-free athletes from Russia could go to the 2018 Olympic Games in the status of neutral athletes.

"The IBU Executive Board will hold an extraordinary meeting on December 10 and will afterwards invite all World Cup teams and athletes for an information meeting, followed by a press conference (exact time to be announced) in Hochfilzen," the IBU said in its statement.

"After discussing and approving the Schmid Report, the IOC EB (Executive Board) among others took the decision to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) with immediate effect and decided to invite clean individual Russian athletes to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang under strict conditions," according to the IBU statement.

"These athletes will participate under the name, ‘Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR)’," the statement said. "They will compete in a uniform bearing this name, under the Olympic Flag. The Olympic Anthem will be played in any ceremony including these athletes."

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Doping scandal in Russian sports

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