Russia banned from Olympics for four years over doping scandal.

Russia doping ban timeline: events leading to WADA decision.

The WADA has laid a four-year, ban on Russia from all global sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022, Beijing Winter Olympics.

The World Anti-Doping Agency banned Russia’s national team after officials in Moscow were accused of fabricating evidence to cover up the use of banned substances by the country’s athletes. Individual athletes who comply with strict conditions will be allowed to compete under a neutral flag, while WADA ordered a ban on Russian government officials or representatives attending events.

February 2018: A team of 168 Russians competed as part of a neutral’ Olympic Athlete from Russia’ (OAR) team but two of them failed drug tests - medal-winning curler Alexander Krushelnitsky and bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva.

February 2018: Russia was reinstated by the IOC after the remaining tests of the country’s athletes at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics were all returned negative.

September 2018: WADA’s the executive committee voted to reinstate RUSADA before it had fulfilled the requirements laid out in a “Roadmap to Compliance”, which included giving access to the data stored at Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory.

January 2019: WADA extracted doping data from the discredited Moscow laboratory, including more than 2,0000 samples, three weeks after the deadline it had set Russia.

September 2019: WADA said historical data supplied by the country’s anti-doping authority contained “inconsistencies” and that RUSADA faced another suspension. The IAAF maintained its ban on Russia which was excluded from the world athletics championships in Doha.

November 2019: A WADA compliance committee recommended that Russia receive a four-year Olympic ban as part of a sanctions package to punish Moscow for having provided the an agency with doctored and incomplete laboratory data.