What is ROC at the Olympics and why Russian athletes cannot compete with their name and flag

(CNN Spanish) – The medal table The Tokyo 2020 Olympics shows at the top names of countries that regularly compete for the top spots, such as the United States, China, host Japan and Great Britain. But in the top 10, a name is immediately apparent: ROC.

Until the early hours of this Monday, ROC was in the seventh place with a total of 8 medals. But which country is ROC?

Russian athletes are banned from competing in Tokyo under their flag and anthem and are instead identified as “ROC” athletes – short for the Russian Olympic Committee – following a series of doping scandals that rocked the sport. world level.

In addition to not being able to be identified by the name of their country, rather than having their anthem playing on the podium, Russian gold medalists in Tokyo this year and at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will hear music by composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Silver medalist Tatiana Minina of the Russian team (ROC) poses on the podium during the medal ceremony for Women’s Taekwondo -57kg on the second day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Makuhari Messe Hall on 25 July 2021 in Chiba, Japan. (Photo by Maja Hitij / Getty Images)

The ban is intended to sanction Moscow for providing world anti-doping authorities with manipulated laboratory data that could have helped identify those who cheated through doping.

The original four-year sanction, imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), was announced in 2019, although a year later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) cut it in half.

Previously, many Russian athletes were excluded from the last two Olympics and the country’s flag was banned from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games as punishment for state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Games.

Russia has acknowledged shortcomings in its enforcement of anti-doping policies, but denies that it runs a state-sponsored doping program.

With information from Reuters