‘ROC’ Will Be Name for Russian Athletes in Next Two Olympic Games

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Friday that since Russia’s name is banned for the next two Olympic games, the country’s athletes will be known as the “ROC.”

The acronym stands for Russian Olympic Committee, and was agreed on by the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Friday.

Russia’s team name, flag and national anthem banned from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as well as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which gave out two years of sanctions on Russian sports for tampering with testing in Moscow while the laboratory was under state control.

According to the AP, the Russian team flag in Tokyo and Beijing will be the ROC symbol — an Olympic flame in the white, blue and red stripes of the national flag above the five Olympic rings.

A piece of music to replace the Russian national anthem at medal ceremonies has not yet been agreed on.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport accused Russia of engaging in “a cover up of the cover up” while also justifying its decision to reduce the country’s ban from major sporting events from four years to two.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) had appealed the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decision to impose a four-year suspension in December 2019 following the state-sponsored doping scandal involving the manipulation of data.

While CAS upheld the ban they halved it to two years in their ruling last month meaning they will still miss the Tokyo Olympics and Beijing Winter Games before being reinstated on 16 December 2022.

The panel said it cut the ban partly because WADA had only intended it to include one summer and one winter Games but four years would also have encompassed Paris 2024.

The coronavirus pandemic forced the IOC to push the Tokyo Olympics back a year to 2021 and CAS said the reduction would also help avoid further disruptions to preparations “particularly in the light of disruption occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

CAS also lowered the burden for Russian athletes to compete as neutrals in Tokyo and Beijing and will now be known as ROC athletes.

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dave

3 years ago

hope they don’t get ROCked with too many more drug offences.