The World Athletics Federation (WA) has lifted the ban against Russia because of state-sponsored doping. The exclusion because of the war remains.
The World Athletics task force has now identified a culture change in the Russian association RusAF in dealing with doping, as it was said after a WA Council meeting on Thursday (03/23/2023).
RusAF was given 35 conditions that must be met over the next three years and will be reviewed by the WA Integrity Commission. Rune Andersen, head of the Russia Task Force, said he was finally pleased with the “new culture of good governance and zero tolerance of doping throughout the organisation”.
Russia’s track and field athletes have been banned internationally because of the doping scandal since November 2015, i.e. for seven years and four months. However, WA granted neutral athlete status to individual athletes under certain conditions.
Russians and Belarusians are still banned from taking off
Because of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the WA continued to impose a separate suspension. This decision follows the decision by the European Athletics Federation last week that Russian and Belarusian athletes are barred from participating until the end of the war in Ukraine.
The International Olympic Committee wants to discuss the criteria for the return of athletes from the two countries next Tuesday and adopt recommendations for the world associations.