In an historic decision, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the Russian Federation from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Russia was punished because of widespread doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The move hits especially hard as Russia hosted the Sochi games.
The IOC did make allowances for Russian athletes to participate as invited guests, and they will be identified as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.” Once “considered clean to the satisfaction of [a special Olympic panel]”, they can compete under the Olympic flag. If these athletes win a Gold medal, they will not hear Russia’s anthem as they stand on the podium.
We’ll talk about the controversy with sports journalist Mark Johnson, author of Spitting in the Soup: Inside the Dirty Game of Doping in Sports.