Tokyo, Aug 1: The president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) says his team’s medals at the Tokyo Games are the “best answer” to critics who have questioned why Russian athletes are allowed to compete following doping scandals.
Stanislav Pozdnyakov told media on Sunday that critics “supposed that as a matter of fact our athletes can’t compete without doping”, but that Russian athletes in Tokyo “proved the opposite not just with words but with their deeds and results.”
Russia is competing under the Russian Olympic Committee banner in Tokyo after a ruling which barred the country’s name, flag and anthem from the Olympics and other major sporting events.
That punishment came after the World Anti-Doping Agency found that data from a drug-testing laboratory in Moscow had been tampered with as a part of Russia’s state-sponsored doping programme.
Russian athletes have won 39 medals in Tokyo to date, including 11 gold medals. (AP)
