By Daily Sports on December 7, 2017

A final decision on whether Russian athletes will compete under a neutral flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics will be made next week.

The International Olympic Committee says Russian sports federations and athletes will meet on 12 December.

The Russian Olympic Committee was banned from the Pyeongchang Games by the IOC on Tuesday for doping offences.

But IOC president Thomas Bach said he hoped clean athletes would "seize the opportunity" to compete in South Korea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already said the state will not stand in the way of athletes wanting to go to the Games in February.

Russia implemented a state-sponsored doping programme involving 1,000 athletes across 30 sports from 2011-2015, leading to the ban. But in announcing the sanction on Tuesday, the IOC also stressed it had a clear pathway for clean athletes to compete as individuals.

"A new beginning is possible and we can look into the future of clean sport in Russia and this could be a really strong message," Bach said.

There had been speculation Moscow could boycott the Games entirely after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday barred the country from competition over what Bach described as Russia’s “unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport”.

“We will certainly not declare any boycott, we will not prevent our Olympians from competing, if they want to take part in a personal capacity,” Putin said after a speech at an automobile plant in Nizhny Novgorod, in which he announced he would run for a fourth presidential term next year.

“The final decision of course must be made by the Olympic team,” he said. Putin said the ban looked like “an absolutely staged and politically motivated decision”, repeating denials that any state sponsored doping programme had existed in Russia.

“I feel for those guys — I consider many of them friends rather than just acquaintances. I really feel for them,” he said of the athletes in the Russian team. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier Wednesday cautioned against an “emotional” response to the ban.

Russian officials are expected to address the ban in a meeting next Tuesday. (BBC)

•Photo shows Russian athletes in a competition.

Source Daily Sports

Posted December 7, 2017

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