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IOC bans athletes from marching under Russian flag in closing ceremony

Sean Ingle in Pyeongchang
Fans wave Russian flags at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
Fans wave Russian flags at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Russian athletes will not be allowed to march under their country’s flag at Sunday’s closing ceremony because of their two failed drugs tests at these Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has confirmed.

However – in a textbook case of IOC politics – it was also announced that the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), which was suspended in December because of massive state-sponsored doping in Sochi four years’ ago, could return to the Olympic fold as soon as this week.

The compromise, which came after hours of wrangling by the IOC’s executive committee on Saturday, appears to confirm rumours that a deal was place between the IOC and the Russians for a return at the closing ceremony – only for it to be scuppered by the Russian bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva failing a drugs test for the stimulant trimetazidine on Friday.

The 168 Russian athletes at these Games have been competing as Olympic Athletes of Russia, having been cleared by an anti-doping review panel last month.

Speaking at the IOC’s executive board meeting on Sunday, president Thomas Bach said: “The IOC would have considered lifting the suspension because the OAR delegation has respected the December 5 decision. However, two athletes failed doping tests here in Pyeongchang. This was hugely disappointing and prevented the IOC lifting the suspension.”

However, he also added: “Subject to continued compliance of December 5, the suspension of the ROC is considered to be lifted once it is confirmed there are no additional doping cases by members of the OAR delegation.”

Meanwhile IOC medical director Richard Budgett insisted that the two Russian doping cases at these Games were individual and not linked.

Budget questioned the benefit of meldonium in curling – the substance that caused Aleksandr Krushelnitsky to be stripped of his mixed doubles curling bronze, adding that there is no evidence of the two cases being linked, or being part of a systematic approach, “however disappointing they are”.