ROC (ROC)

At Beijing 2022, for the third consecutive Olympic Games, Russia competed under a different name due to a doping scandal that resulted in a ban from Olympic competitions.

The Russian doping ban stemmed from a 2015 independent commission organized by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This commission was led by the agency’s former president, Dick Pound, and revealed Russia had been running and endorsing a doping program. This was backed up in 2016, after whistleblower Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov told the New York Times about how Russia’s state-run doping helped them to perform well at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

A July 2016 investigation by WADA confirmed, “beyond a reasonable doubt”, that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) had worked with other state agencies to cover up positive tests. WADA recommended that Russia should be banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejected the recommendation. Instead, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided which athletes would and wouldn’t participate in the Games. As a result, 278 Russian athletes were cleared, while 111 were removed.

In December 2017, the IOC announced that Russia was banned from the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. However, their athletes were allowed to compete as neutrals, under the Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) flag.

RUSADA faced another suspension from WADA, after inconsistencies in anti-doping data were discovered during a 2019 investigation. WADA president Sir Craig Reedie explained the decision to enforce the four-year ban that came due to data manipulation by RUSADA.

However, in late 2020, that punishment was reduced to two years by the CAS. Still, at Tokyo 2020, it competed as Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) because of the ban, and the same happened at the Beijing 2022 Olympics.

At Tokyo 2020, the Russian Olympic Committee won 71 medals and 20 gold, while it has won 49 medals and eight golds during their two appearances at the Winter Olympics. ROC’s best Summer Olympians are shooter Vitalina Batsarashkina and swimmer Yevgeny Rylov, both winning two gold and one silver at Tokyo 2020. But the medal count is led by a Winter Olympian, cross country skier Aleksandr Bolshunov, who won three gold, four silver and two bronze.