Athletics is a sport in Russia. [1] Russian athletes competed in international athletics competitions such as Olympic Games or World athletics championships. Athletics was governed in Russia by the All-Russia Athletic Federation.[ citation needed ] The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found widespread doping and large-scale cover ups by the Russian authorities, the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) was declared non-compliant with respect to the World Anti-Doping Code, and in 2015 the IAAF council overwhelmingly voted in favour of prohibiting Russia from world sports events with immediate effect. [2] ARAF accepted the indefinite IAAF suspension. As of 2022 [update] , due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, World Athletics has banned all Russian athletes, support personnel, and officials from all World Athletics Series events for the foreseeable future, including those with ANA status. [3] Beginning in March 2022, after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Diamond League excluded Russian and Belarusian athletes from all of its track and field meetings. [4]
Event | Medals | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Tot. | |
Olympic Games | 25 | 26 | 25 | 76 |
As the Russian Empire, the nation first competed at the 1900 Games, and returned again in 1908 and 1912. After the Russian revolution in 1917, and the subsequent establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, it would be thirty years until Russian athletes once again competed at the Olympics, at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian athletes participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona as part of the Unified Team.[ citation needed ]
Games | Participants | Men | Women | Total | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ||
1900–1912 | as part of the ![]() | ||||||||||||
1920–1948 | did not participate | ||||||||||||
1952–1988 | as part of the ![]() | ||||||||||||
![]() | as part of the ![]() | ||||||||||||
![]() | 85 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 10 |
![]() | 109 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 13 |
![]() | 115 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 19 |
![]() | 104 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 18 |
![]() | 97 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 15 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 16 |
![]() | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 5 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 15 | 56 | 25 | 26 | 25 | 76 |
In December 2014, a documentary by German broadcaster ARD made wide-ranging allegations of state involvement in systematic doping in Russian athletics, accusing Russia of an "East German-style" doping programme. [5] The allegations resulted in the resignation of ARAF President Valentin Balakhnichevas Treasurer of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). [6]
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) subsequently investigated the allegations. The 323-page report, published on 9 November 2015, confirmed widespread doping and large-scale cover ups by the authorities. It recommended that the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) be declared non-compliant with respect to the World Anti-Doping Code, and recommended that the International Olympic Committee not accept any entries from ARAF until compliance was reached. [7] [8] Based on this report, which The Guardian described as "damning", [9] the IAAF council overwhelmingly voted 22–1 in favour of prohibiting Russia from world sports events with immediate effect, in its 13 November session. [2] Russia has been also prohibited from hosting the 2016 World Race Walking Team Championships (Cheboksary) and 2016 World Junior Championships (Kazan), and ARAF must entrust doping cases to Court of Arbitration for Sport. [2] ARAF accepted the indefinite IAAF suspension and did not request a hearing. [10] ARAF's efforts towards regaining full IAAF membership will be monitored by a five-person IAAF team. [11]
As of 2022 [update] , due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, World Athletics banned all Russian athletes, support personnel, and officials from all World Athletics Series events for the foreseeable future, including those with ANA status.[ citation needed ] Beginning in March 2022, after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Diamond League excluded Russian and Belarusian athletes from all of its track and field meetings. [12]
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations, is the international governing body for the sport of athletics, covering track and field, cross country running, road running, race walking, mountain running, and ultra running. Included in its charge are the standardization of rules and regulations for the sports, certification of athletic facilities, recognition and management of world records, and the organisation and sanctioning of athletics competitions, including the World Athletics Championships. The organisation's president is Sebastian Coe of the United Kingdom, who was elected in 2015 and re-elected unopposed in 2019 for a further four years.
The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland, the site of the first IAAF World Championships in 1983. One theme of the 2005 championships was paralympic events, some of which were included as exhibition events. Much of the event was played in extremely heavy rainfall.
The World Anti-Doping Agency is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code, whose provisions are enforced by the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport. The aims of the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention and the United States Anti-Doping Agency are also closely aligned with those of WADA.
Competitors at the Olympic Games have used banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs.
The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10 to 18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 2001. It was also the first time ever the host nation took the top of the medal table. However, following the disqualification of Russian sprinter Antonina Krivoshapka for doping and after the redistribution of medals in the Women's 4 × 400 metres relay, the United States moved to the top of the medal table with eight golds. In the overall medal count, the United States won 26 medals in total, followed by Kenya with 12. With 1,784 athletes from 203 countries it was the biggest single sports event of the year. The number of spectators for the evening sessions was 268,548 surpassing Daegu 2011.
The most popular sport in Russia is soccer. According to Yandex search analysis results rating of the most popular sports among Russians: "Football topped the list of the most popular sports in Russia" with 5 to 10 million requests. Ice hockey came in second with handball, basketball, futsal, boxing, auto racing, volleyball, athletics, tennis, and chess rounding out the top ten rankings. Other popular sports include bandy, biathlon, figure skating, weightlifting, gymnastics, wrestling, martial arts, rugby union, and skiing.
Mariya Sergeyevna Savinova is a Russian former athlete who specialized in the 800-metres event. In 2017, she was found guilty of doping and was subsequently suspended from competition for four-years. In addition to the ban, she had three years of elite results nullified and was stripped of both her World Championship medals and her 2012 Olympic gold medal.
An athlete biological passport is an individual electronic record for professional athletes, in which profiles of biological markers of doping and results of doping tests are collated over a period of time. Doping violations can be detected by noting variances from an athlete's established levels outside permissible limits, rather than testing for and identifying illegal substances.
The Russian Olympic Committee is the National Olympic Committee representing Russia. Its president is Stanislav Pozdnyakov.
Russia has competed at the Paralympic Games as different teams in its history. The nation competed as part of the Soviet Union at the 1988 Summer and Winter Games, while after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia competed as part of the Unified Team in 1992. The nation competed for a first time as Russia at the 1994 Winter Paralympics, and after that participated in every summer and winter edition up until the 2014 Winter Paralympics.
Yuliya Igorevna Stepanova is a Russian runner who specializes in the 800 metres track event. Stepanova was also an informant for World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) about Russia's large-scale doping program. She and her husband, Vitaly Stepanov, exposed widespread doping in Russia.
Viktor Mikhailovich Chegin is a banned Russian racewalking coach. He was responsible for training all three athletes who swept the medals at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics: Olga Kaniskina, Valeriy Borchin and Sergey Kirdyapkin. His athletes Elena Lashmanova and Sergey Kirdyapkin won gold medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics, with Kaniskina earning a silver medal. Former and banned world record holders Lashmanova, Denis Nizhegorodov and Sergey Morozov are all coached by Chegin.
The Russian Athletics Federation (RAF), previously named the All-Russia Athletic Federation, is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Russia. Its president is Dmitry Shlyakhtin.
The Russian Anti-Doping Agency, established in January 2008, is the Russian National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO), affiliated with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The McLaren Report is the name given to an independent report released in two parts by professor Richard McLaren into allegations and evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia. It was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in May 2016. In July 2016, McLaren presented Part 1 of the report, indicating systematic state-sponsored subversion of the drug testing processes by the government of Russia during and subsequent to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In December 2016, he published the second part of the report on doping in Russia.
The Authorised Neutral Athletes are Russian athletes who are permitted to compete in the 2017 World Championships in Athletics by special permission, despite the IAAF's suspension of the Russian Athletic Federation. In order to compete, Russian athletes must demonstrate that they were not involved in the doping scandal that precipitated Russia's suspension from international athletics.
Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) is a capacity under which athletes can compete at international sporting competitions without representing their nations, as is standard convention under the Olympic Charter. As of August 2022, only Russian and Belarusian athletes of some sports have competed or are competing within the ANA capacity.
Systematic doping of Russian athletes has resulted in 48 Olympic medals stripped from Russia, four times the number of the next highest, and more than 30% of the global total. Russia has the most competitors who have been caught doping at the Olympic Games in the world, with more than 150.