Fans of the Tokyo Olympics will have noticed that Russian athletes are competing under "ROC" rather than "Russia" this Games, ROC stands for Russian Olympic Committee (opens in new tab), and hundreds of "ROC" athletes are competing under the Olympic hoop flag (opens in new tab) rather than the Russian flag (opens in new tab) - as they did in 2019 despite the international doping scandal (opens in new tab) that rocked the sports world. but competing under the Olympic wheel flag (opens in new tab) - a workaround to allow them to compete despite the international doping scandal (opens in new tab) that has rocked the sports world in 2019. The fact that Russian athletes are competing has been a source of controversy for the Games and other athletes. Not helping matters is the fact that the ROC is currently ranked high (opens in new tab) on the national leaderboard at the Olympics despite not being an actual country. So what do we know?

In 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from all international sports competitions for four years following a doping scandal; WADA indicates Russia engaged in state-sponsored doping against more than 1,000 athletes over several years It said it had conclusive evidence that drug testing data had been falsified (opens in new tab). The period spanned two Olympic Games - London and Sochi - and included a variety of unethical practices (opens in new tab), including athletes systematically swapping contaminated urine samples (opens in new tab).

As a result, Russia was subjected to various punishments. In addition to being stripped of several former medals by the International Olympic Committee (opens in new tab), banned from the 2018 Winter Games (opens in new tab), and handed a lifetime ban by the IAAF for some participants (opens in new tab), WADA has ruled that Russia will be banned for four years from using its flag, national name, anthem and officials cannot be used in competition, the ruling said. This ruling was the most severe ever handed down.

Although the arbitral tribunal reduced the four-year punishment to two years, "the panel clearly upheld our findings that the Russian authorities brazenly and illegally manipulated the Moscow Institute's data to cover up an organized doping scheme," World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Vanica said (opens in new tab).

"In the face of continued resistance and denials from Russia, we followed due process and clearly proved our case.

The ban will be lifted in December 2022, and until then, ROCs can be viewed by tuning into other international sporting events, including the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

The ROC designation means that the athletes are competing as "neutrals." The 335 Russian athletes competing seem to have been able to prove that they have nothing to do with the doping scandal, but technically they are not yet competing for their country. They still wear the red, white, and blue of Russia.

At the time of the 2019 ruling, sources explained that this may cause athletes who may have been part of the scandal to compete anyway. (Open in new tab) Canadian Olympian Becky Scott told The New York Times, "The view of many people is that it's largely superficial." It is especially disappointing in light of the fact that WADA had the authority and power to impose stronger and more serious sanctions, but chose not to do so." Others, however, thought it represented a strong indictment of the country of Russia.

Reuters (open in new tab) reported that the Russian delegation was among the "most inspected" for the Tokyo Games. Reuters (opens in new tab) reported that two members of the Russian men's four-man rowing (rowing) team tested positive for banned substances (opens in new tab), but because it was an out-of-competition test in June, Russia was not completely disqualified (they were later informed that their substitute rowers were not eligible for the Olympics (They withdrew from the competition because they were not eligible to compete).

Russian propaganda used "ROC" (opens in new tab) to garner nationwide pro-Russian support: the Russian authorities added a "k" to "ROCK". "Match TV, the national sports channel, is responsible for launching a social media campaign with #WeWillROCYou. Controversial videos have been made defaming the U.S. and the media.

ROC athletes have performed well: as of this writing, they have won 52 medals (opens in new tab) and are in third place in the overall medal count. When asked about Russian athletes doping (opens in new tab), several Olympic swimmers said they still feel doping is taking place. American rower Megan Kalmoe tweeted that the silver-medal winning Russian team "shouldn't be here" and said their victory made her "feel bad."

She later elaborated that it was "very problematic as a competitor that there were so many women here who I think deserved to win one of the medals and were not given that opportunity because their boat was here" (open in new tab).

After Evgeny Lilov won gold in the 200m backstroke, silver medalist Ryan Murphy of the USA did not mince words. Swimming in a race that probably isn't clean takes a toll on you mentally," Murphy said. I don't have the bandwidth to try to work with people who are training and making decisions at a very high level for the Olympics that they are making bad decisions." Bronze medalist Luke Greenback (GBR) was even more outspoken: "It is frustrating that there is a state-sponsored doping program in place and yet no action is being taken against it." [In response, the Russian Olympic Committee (open in new tab) said:

"How unsettling our victory must be for some of our colleagues. Yes, we are in the Olympics. Whether someone likes it or not. The old barrel organ began to sing again a song about Russian doping. Propaganda in English, the sweat of words oozing in the Tokyo heat. Through the mouths of defeated and offended athletes. We do not comfort you. Forgive the weak. God will judge them. And for us ...... assistants."

So it is interesting. Ryloff himself said at a press conference, "From the bottom of my heart, I am in favor of clean sport ...... Ryan has not accused me of anything, so I would like to refrain from commenting."