Russia at the 2018 Winter Olympics

Last game doping scandal

In December 2014, German public broadcaster ARD aired a documentary which made wide-ranging allegations that Russia organized a state-run doping program which supplied their athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. In November 2015, Russia's track and field team was provisionally suspended by the IAAF.

In May 2016, The New York Times published allegations by the former director of Russia's anti-doping laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, that a conspiracy of corrupt anti-doping officials, FSB intelligence agents, and compliant Russian athletes used banned substances to gain an unfair advantage during the Games. Rodchenkov stated that the FSB tampered with over 100 urine samples as part of a cover-up, and that a third of the Russian medals won at Sochi were the result of doping.

In December 2016, The New York Times reported that Russia (after years of denials) finally admitted that senior Russian officials carried out one of the biggest conspiracies in sports history — a far-reaching doping operation that implicated scores of Russian athletes and tainted not just the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi but also the entire Olympic movement. It was confirmed that a lab director tampered with urine samples at the Olympics and provided cocktails of performance-enhancing drugs, corrupting some of the world’s most prestigious competitions. Members of the Federal Security Service (a successor to the K.G.B.) broke into sample bottles holding urine. In addition, a deputy sports minister for years ordered cover-ups of top athletes’ use of banned substances. Anna Antseliovich, the acting director general of Russia’s national antidoping agency characterized Russia's cheating program as an "institutional conspiracy.” She later confirmed that her words were "taken out of context" and "distorted".

In December, 2016, following the release of the McLaren report on Russian in Sochi Olympics team, the International Olympic Committee announced the initiation of an investigation of 28 Russian athletes at the Sochi Olympic Games. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported the names of 17 athletes, of whom 15 are among the 28 under investigation. The Russian team potentially could be stripped of up to 12 Olympic medals.

Three ladies artistic skaters were named as being under investigation. They are Adelina Sotnikova, the singles gold medalist, as well as pairs skaters Tatiana Volosozhar and Ksenia Stolbova. Volosozhar and Stolbova won gold and silver medals, respectively, in pairs skating. Both also won gold medals in the team event, which also puts the other eight team medalists at risk of losing their golds.

Six skiers were suspended from competition on the basis of the McLaren report: Evgeniy Belov, Alexander Legkov, Alexey Petukhov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Yulia Ivanova, and Yevgenia Shapovalova. Legkov won a gold medal, and Vylegzhanin won three silver medals.

The International Biathlon Union suspended two biathletes who were in the Sochi games: Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. Vilukhina won silver in sprint, and both women were on a relay team that won the silver medal.

The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation suspended four skeleton sliders. They are among the six athletes on the skeleton team: Nikita Tregubov, Alexander Tretyakov, Sergey Chudinov, Elena Nikitina, Maria Orlova and Olga Potylitsina. Tretyakov won a gold medal, and Nikitina won a silver.

2016 Summer Olympics Participation requirements

In 2015, due to allegations of an extensive state sponsored doping program in the Russian Federation, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commissioned an investigation into the accusations. The report of this investigation was published in November 2015, reported widespread doping as well as actions between coaches and official testing laboratories to cover it up.

On 9 November 2015 and based on its findings, WADA announced that it was Russia's obligation to implement an effective anti-doping program compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC). In regard to specific allegations against the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF), WADA announced that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) should not allow any ARAF track and field athletes to compete in international sporting events, including all Russian athletes never found positive in any test, until that organization became compliant with the WADC.

On 21 June 2016, due to Russia's national anti-doping organization having been declared non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that the eligibility of all athletes to compete in the 2016 Olympics should be based on an individual case by case basis by the International Federation governing each sport. The IOC affirmed an earlier special circumstance decision by the International Association of Athletics Federations banning all of the All-Russia Athletic Federation track and field athletes from competing in 2016 Olympics.

On 18 July 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) presented a second more detailed report, finding that Russia's Ministry of Sport and Federal Security Service (FSB) had operated a "state-dictated" system to implement an extensive doping program and to cover up positive samples. The report was conducted by Richard McLaren, a Canadian law professor appointed by WADA. Based on his finding, the International Olympic Committee called for an emergency meeting to consider banning Russia from the Summer Olympics. On 24 July 2016, the IOC Executive Committee decided against completely banning Russian participation and instead decided to set additional, stricter requirements for all Russian participants entered into the Olympic Games:

Under these exceptional circumstances, Russian athletes in any of the 28 Olympic summer sports have to assume the consequences of what amounts to a collective responsibility in order to protect the credibility of the Olympic competitions, and the “presumption of innocence” cannot be applied to them. On the other hand, according to the rules of natural justice, individual justice, to which every human being is entitled, has to be applied. This means that each affected athlete must be given the opportunity to rebut the applicability of collective responsibility in his or her individual case.

The IOC Executive Board specified that in order to be admitted every participant would need to be evaluated by the International Federation of the sport he/she was entered to compete in, unlike participants of any other nationality. The federation has to evaluate participants individually based on World Anti-Doping Code and other principles decided by the IOC and cannot take into account doping tests undertaken by Russian anti-doping authorities, but only "reliable adequate international tests". Furthermore, Russian athletes with a previous anti-doping decision can not participate, even after the sanction has been served, again unlike participants of any other nationality.

The positive evaluation of every eligible participant is to be confirmed by a CAS arbitrator, which is "independent from any sports organization involved in the Olympic Games Rio 2016". On 30 July 2016, the IOC specified that following each federation's positive evaluation and its arbitration approval, a three-person IOC panel would be making the final decision. Originally Russia submitted a list of 389 athletes for competition. On 7 August 2016, the IOC cleared 278 athletes, while 111 were removed because of the scandal.

2016 Summer Paralympics banned

On 7 August 2016, following the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics, the governing board of the International Paralympic Committee voted unanimously to suspend the Russian Paralympic Committee and ban the entire Russian Paralympic team from participating in the 2016 Summer Paralympics. IPC president Philip Craven cited Russia's "[inability] to ensure compliance with and enforcement of the IPC anti-doping code and the world anti-doping code within their own national jurisdiction", meaning that the country could not "fulfil its fundamental obligation as an IPC member". On 15 August 2016, the RPC filed a request for an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). On 23 August 2016, the CAS upheld the IPC's decision. In a statement, Craven considered the decision to be a "sad day" and a "new beginning" for the Paralympic movement, explaining that the ban would be a "catalyst for change" in the country, and stated that Russia was welcome to return to the Paralympics once it is capable of "fulfilling its obligations to ensure fair competition for all".

Biathlon

Based on their Nations Cup ranking in the 2016–17 Biathlon World Cup, Russia has qualified 6 men and 5 women.

Curling

Russia has qualified their women's team (five athletes), by finishing in the top seven teams in Olympic Qualification points.

Men's tournament

Russia men's national ice hockey team qualified by finishing 2nd in the 2015 IIHF World Ranking.

Women's tournament

Russia women's national ice hockey team qualified by finishing 4th in the 2016 IIHF World Ranking.