At first glance in the results of Tokyo Olympics, one might think that one of the great historical nations of the Games, Russia, is missing. Instead, in many sports it is possible to see athletes competing under the name “ROC”.
ROC pour « Russian Olympic Committee »
Behind this not very evocative term, an acronym for “Russian Olympic Committee”, translated into French by Russian Olympic Committee.
Indeed, following the scandals linked to institutionalized doping in Russia, in December 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) had suspended Russia for two years from any major international competition, including the Tokyo Summer Games, as well as the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022, but also any other sports competition awarding a world champion title.
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Russian athletes are still allowed to compete, but under a neutral banner, in this case the ROC (the full name of the committee that cannot be used), and provided that they have never been convicted of doping.
The Russian flag is like this banned in competitions, as well as the country’s anthem, replaced for the Tokyo Olympics by a work by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
In any case, this ban does not prevent Russian athletes from shining, currently being 4it is from medal ranking with 19 medals in total, including 7 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze.
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