Russia's anti-doping agency, RUSADA, says it will not appeal a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to ban Russia from competing as a nation at sports tournaments for two years, including the Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
In a statement on January 25, RUSADA said it will not appeal the ruling, "putting the interests of Russian athletes first."
On December 17, 2020, the CAS halved an original four-year doping ban imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Russian athletes in December 2019, according to which Russia's name, flag, and anthem are barred from the Olympics for manipulating lab samples and doping test data.
RUSADA's statement said that it still regards the CAS ruling as “flawed and one-sided,” but hailed the CAS's move to reject the tougher sanctions proposed by WADA.
“RUSADA considers that this chapter has now been closed and is looking forward and committed to working with WADA with a goal to fully restore RUSADA’s membership status,” the statement said, adding that RUSADA “remains fully committed to the fight against doping but will continue to defend the rights of clean Russian athletes and to oppose any form of discrimination against Russian sport.”
