MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/: The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) collected a total of 11,053 doping samples from Russian athletes in 2022, a spokeswoman for the agency told TASS on Wednesday.
"The Russian Anti-Doping Agency collected 11,053 doping samples in the period between January and December 2022," she said.
RUSADA Director General Veronika Loginova told TASS in late December that the agency had met its target for 2022 on doping testing of athletes ahead of schedule with the reported figure standing at over 11,000.
In late March 2022, RUSADA inked a cooperation agreement with the Turkish anti-doping laboratory, which had valid accreditation from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Under Russia’s limited air traffic with Europe at that time, the agreement allowed RUSADA to conduct testing of athletes’ blood samples within the required period, as well as to carry on with its program on athletes’ biological passports.
WADA-RUSADA standoff
On December 9, 2019, the WADA Executive Committee (ExCo) approved the recommendations of its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) to revoke the compliance status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency and to strip Russia of the right to participate in major international sports tournaments, including the Olympics, Paralympics and world championships, for a period of four years.
On December 17, 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne partially upheld WADA’s previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports.
Following the CAS decision, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia and to the tune of the national anthem for two years.
The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for organizing any international sports tournaments for a period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022.
