There’s no Russia at the Olympics, but its athletes are winning medals in Tokyo. Here’s how
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New Delhi: Russia is not participating in the Tokyo Olympics. And yet Russian athletes have already won 22 medals at the event, including seven golds.
Despite a ban on the country participating in any international sporting event till 2022, 335 Russian athletes are part of the Tokyo Olympics, participating under the ROC banner, which is currently ranked fourth, according to the medal tally.
ThePrint explains the Russian paradox at the Olympics.
Why are Russian athletes competing under the ROC banner?
In 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from participating in any international events for four years, following doping allegations against athletes from the country.
In 2020, The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), reduced the ban to two years — the period of which ends on 16 December 2022. The country is prohibited from participating in any international sporting event during this time, which includes the Tokyo Olympics, the coming Paralympics in August or Winter Olympics in Beijing in February and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
However, while the country is banned — stopping Russian athletes from participating under the country’s banner and flag, using the country’s name or singing the national anthem — the country’s athletes are participating at the Tokyo event under the ROC banner.
ROC stands for the Russian Olympic Committee, but since the use of the committee name is also prohibited under the ban, the athletes are using the acronym ‘ROC’, which is all that Russian athletes have been allowed to publicly display as the association to which they belong.
Also, only those athletes who are not under any suspension or restriction have been allowed to participate.
Why was Russia banned?
In 2014, 800-metre runner Yulia Stepanova and her husband Vitaly, a former employee of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) exposed a sophisticated doping programme in a German documentary.
In 2015, a WADA-initiated investigation revealed a system of state-sponsored sports doping and the covering up of failed anti-doping tests of athletes at the lab of the then RUSADA chief, Grigory Rodchenkov. Rodchenkov, who had been the mastermind behind doping by Russian athletes at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, fled to the US shortly after the report was published.
The accreditation of Russia’s anti-doping lab was revoked the same year.
Another whistleblower came forward in 2016 and told The New York Times that Russia ran a planned state-sponsored doping scheme. NYT‘s source was none other than Rodchenkov, who claimed intelligence officers substituted player’s urine through a hole in a wall, prompting an investigation by WADA, IOC and other global sporting federations.
An independent investigation was ordered by WADA, the report of which was published in July 2016, and claimed Russian players routinely used drugs to enhance performance at 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Following this, 111 out of 389 Russian athletes were barred from participating in the 2016 Rio Olympics, based on preliminary investigations. The entire Russian team was banned from participating in the 2016 Paralympics.
After multiple investigations, even though it was revealed that more than 1,000 athletes across 30 sports were aided by state-sponsored doping, in September 2018, WADA lifted the sanctions, on the condition that Russia hands over data relating to its athletes from its Moscow lab to doping regulators.
However, it was alleged by WADA that Russia tampered with the data and so WADA imposed a four-year ban on the country’s participation in international events, later reduced by the CAS to two years, following an appeal by Russia.
Even after the ban ends, Russia will have to pay all fines and contributions (cost incurred by WADA on the case, equivalent to either 10 per cent of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s annual income in 2019 or 1,00,000 USD whichever is lower), agree to follow all terms of WADA’s sanctions and adhere to its regulations.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Courtesy: theprint.in
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2nd phase of Bengal poll: 39.97 per cent polling till 11 am amid sporadic violence
Kolkata (PTI): Nearly 40 per cent of the 3.21 crore electors voted till 11 am of the second phase of polling in West Bengal amid sporadic violence, while tension gripped the Bhabanipur seat briefly as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari took swipes at one another in the same booth area.
Voters queued up from 7 am outside booths in Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas and Purba Bardhaman districts, which form Bengal's electoral and political core.
Of the total electorate eligible to vote in this phase, 1.57 crore are women, and 792 are third-gender.
Till 11 am, West Bengal recorded 39.97 per cent polling with Purba Bardhaman registering the highest turnout at 44.50 per cent, followed by Hooghly at 43.12 per cent and Nadia at 40.34 per cent.
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Howrah recorded 39.45 per cent polling, while North 24 Parganas registered 38.43 per cent. Kolkata North and Kolkata South recorded 38.39 per cent and 36.78 per cent turnout, respectively.
South 24 Parganas, a politically crucial district witnessing several high-profile contests, recorded 37.9 per cent voting.
The first phase of polls in 152 Assembly seats of West Bengal on April 23 also recorded more than 41 per cent polling till 11 am.
"Polling is underway peacefully, barring some minor incidents in certain areas. We have sought reports from the officials concerned," a poll panel official said.
The early-morning convergence of Banerjee and Adhikari at the same booth area in Chakraberia turned Bhabanipur -- the chief minister's electoral bastion -- into the centrepiece of the day, reinforcing the symbolic weight of their prestige battle seen as a rematch of Nandigram, where the BJP leader had defeated her in 2021.
Banerjee was already seated outside the booth after receiving complaints of alleged intimidation of local TMC leaders when Adhikari arrived there amid heavy deployment of central forces.
Stepping out of his car, Adhikari declared, "I will not allow any hooliganism", while Banerjee accused the BJP of trying to "rig" the election using central forces, police observers and election officials.
"BJP wants to rig this election. Polls in Bengal are usually peaceful. Is there goonda raj here?" Banerjee told reporters, alleging CRPF personnel had visited the homes of TMC leaders late Tuesday night and unleashed terror in the area.
She alleged that election observers were acting at the BJP's behest and claimed TMC workers were being selectively targeted across districts.
Adhikari dismissed the charges as signs of "frustration", claiming Banerjee had realised that "not a single vote" was coming her way.
Banerjee, who usually steps out of her Kalighat residence late in the day to cast her vote at Mitra Institution School, broke convention and hit the ground before 8 am, moving through Chetla, Padmapukur and Chakraberia, underlining the stakes attached to Bhabanipur and the wider battle for south Bengal.
Reports of violence, vandalism and tension surfaced from several districts.
In Nadia district's Chapra, a BJP polling agent was allegedly assaulted inside a booth during a mock poll. The BJP accused TMC supporters of attacking its agent, while the ruling party denied the charge. In Shantipur, a BJP camp office was found vandalised.
In South 24 Pargana's Bhangar, the ISF alleged that its polling agents were prevented from entering booths.
Howrah's Bally constituency saw tension at a booth in Liluah after an EVM malfunction delayed voting, prompting central forces to lathi-charge agitated voters. Two people were arrested in the matter.
Police and RAF personnel were also seen chasing away crowds near a booth in Amdanga following complaints of unlawful gathering by bike-borne supporters.
In Panihati, BJP candidate Ratna Debnath, the mother of the RG Kar victim, faced protests and her car was allegedly stopped by TMC workers, while in Jagaddal, the recovery of a firearm near a polling booth triggered tension before police and central forces restored order.
BJP candidate from Basanti assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas, Bikash Sardar, on Wednesday, alleged that "200-250 TMC goons" attacked his car and assaulted his driver when he was visiting polling booths in the constituency.
The TMC did not immediately respond to the allegations.
Unlike the first phase, where the BJP sought to defend its north Bengal gains, the final round has shifted the battle squarely to the TMC's strongest belt.
In 2021, the ruling party had won 123 of these 142 seats, leaving just 18 for the BJP and one for the ISF. For the BJP, breaching this southern fortress remains critical if it hopes to mount a serious challenge for power in the state.
