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Associated Press

Russia has been barred from sending a team to the 2018 Winter Olympics, but many of its athletes could still be competing in South Korea.
In a compromise punishment handed down on Tuesday, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic committee for the steroid doping programme that corrupted the 2014 Sochi Games yet held open an invitation for the shamed nation’s clean athletes.
Here is a look at Russian athletes’ re-routed road to the February 9-25 Pyeongchang Games:

WHAT DID THE IOC DECIDE?
● The Russian Olympic Committee is suspended and cannot send a team to the Pyeongchang Olympics. Instead, some Russian athletes will be invited to compete after being assessed by an IOC-appointed panel.
● The ROC’s leader, Alexander Zhukov, is suspended from his IOC membership.
● Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko is banned from the Olympics for life. As sports minister in 2014, he was deeply implicated in the Sochi doping plot by two IOC commissions and a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation. Mutko currently serves as the organising committee chairman of soccer’s World Cup, being hosted by Russia next year.
● The chief executive of the Sochi Olympics, Dmitry Chernyshenko, loses his place on an Olympic panel overseeing the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
● The Russian Olympic Committee must pay US$15 million toward the cost of two IOC investigations and future anti-doping work.

WHAT ARE RUSSIA’S OPTIONS?
● Boycott the Pyeongchang Olympics entirely for the first time since the Soviet Union skipped the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
● That would fit with President Vladimir Putin’s warning last month that it would be a humiliation for Russia to compete in South Korea without its national symbols. “An Olympic boycott has never achieved anything,” IOC president Thomas Bach insisted on Tuesday at a news conference to announce the sanctions.
● Russia’s Olympic committee or even an individual athlete could appeal the rulings at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the IOC’s home city Lausanne.
● Russia could accept its punishment and start rebuilding its reputation, trying for a quick rehabilitation – and taking part in the Pyeongchang closing ceremony on February 25. If the Russian Olympic committee and athletes respect the rulings, the IOC said it could “partially or fully lift the suspension of the ROC from the commencement of the Closing Ceremony”.

HOW CAN RUSSIAN ATHLETES COMPETE?
● A special panel will invite Russians to compete. The athletes who have qualified for their event have to prove they are clean athletes.
● The panel will be led by Valerie Fourneyron, a former sports minister of France who chairs a new global body overseeing doping controls. It will include the IOC’s medical director, Dr. Richard Budgett.
● Russian athletes must never have been banned for a doping violation, and also have undergone more intensive target testing since April as a prospective Olympian in Pyeongchang.
● That testing programme, across all sports and all nations, has especially focused on Russia as the IOC seeks to avoid a repeat of the Sochi conspiracy.
● It is unclear how many Russians could compete in South Korea. The home team at Sochi was 232-strong, though 25 have so far been disqualified for doping, losing 11 of the nation’s 33 medals.

WHAT WILL RUSSIAN COMPETITORS CALLED?
● It is a win for the country that the word “Russia” is retained in the title “Olympic Athlete from Russia” or OAR.
● Russians were “Authorised Neutral Athletes” when they competed at the 2017 track and field world championships in London while the national federation was suspended in the fallout from the doping scandal investigations.
● When Kuwaiti athletes were accepted for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, while the nation was formally suspended by the IOC, they were called “Independent Olympic Athletes”.

WHICH ANTHEM WILL PLAY FOR RUSSIAN GOLD MEDALLISTS?
● The Olympic Hymn, a fanfare which is played at opening or closing ceremonies. It played for Kuwaiti shooter Fehaid Al Deehani when he won double trap gold in Rio.
AND WHICH FLAG WILL BE RAISED?
● The five-ring Olympic flag.
WHAT WILL THEY WEAR?
● At the track worlds in London in August, Russians wore a specially-designed Nike uniform in pale blue, purple and dark blue.
● In March, the Russian Olympic Committee signed an eight-year deal to be dressed by Moscow-based ZA Sport.
● It might not look like a typical Russian team of past Olympics – but it will say “Russia” somewhere on the uniform.



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Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018

Russia Olympics ban Q&A: can they still compete at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games?

Russian figure skating coach Tatiana Tarasova looks on while meeting with the media in Moscow, after the International Olympic Committee announced the decision to ban Russia from 2018 Winter Olympics. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this July 27, 2016 file photo Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko uses a mobile phone with the St.Bazil's Cathedral at the background, as he walks for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, Russia. On Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017 IOC imposed a lifetime Olympic ban on Mutko. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, file

A woman waves a Russian flag outside of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in front of the Olympic Rings prior to the opening of the first day of the executive board meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the IOC headquarters, in Pully near Lausanne, on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017. Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the upcoming Pyeongchang Olympics as neutrals despite orchestrated doping at the 2014 Sochi Games, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday. (Jean-Christophe Bott, Keystone via AP)

FILE - In this file photo taken Saturday, March 8, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin, foreground, watches downhill ski competition of the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Roza Khutor mountain district of Sochi, Russia, as Russia's sports minister Vitaly Mutko stands behind. On Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017 IOC imposed a lifetime Olympic ban on Mutko. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service, file)

(FILES) This file photo taken on February 07, 2014 shows Russian model Irina Shayk leading Russia's flag bearer, bobsledder Alexander Zubkov, and the delegation during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi. Russia were banned from the 2018 Olympics on December 5, 2017 over state-sponsored doping but the International Olympic Committee said Russian competitors would be able to compete "under strict conditions". / AFP PHOTO / ADRIAN DENNIS

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach attends a press conference following an executive meeting on Russian doping, on December 5, 2017 in Lausanne. Russia were banned from the 2018 Olympics on December 5 over state-sponsored doping but the International Olympic Committee said Russian competitors would be able to compete "under strict conditions". / AFP PHOTO / Fabrice COFFRINI

epa06369456 (FILE) - The Doping Control Station in the Laura Biathlon Center during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, 21 February 2014 (reissued 05 December 2017). The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 05 December 2017 announced that the Russian Olympic Committee has been banned from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, following an investigation into allegations of state-sponsored doping at the Sochi 2014 Olympics. Some Russian athletes, who can prove they are not implicated in the doping scandal, will compete in Pyeongchang under a neutral flag. EPA-EFE/HENDRIK SCHMIDT *** Local Caption *** 52752746

IOC bans Russia from Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics for state-sponsored doping

Samuel Schmid, chair of the IOC disciplinary commission, and Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, announcing Russia’s ban at a news conference. Photo: Reuters

epa06369155 Alexander Zubkov from Russia ( two-time Sochi Olympic bobsled champion and recently disqualified by IOC) reacts as he speaks to the Russian television, on the side line of the International Olympic Committee, Executive Board meeting, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Tuesday, December 5, 2017. EPA-EFE/JEAN-CHRISTOPH BOTT

A supporter stands with a Russian flag in front of the logo of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the headquarters on December 5, 2017 in Pully near Lausanne. The International Olympic Committee meets to decide whether to bar Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics for doping violations, in one of the weightiest decisions ever faced by the Olympic movement. / AFP PHOTO / Fabrice COFFRINI

Figure skating coach Tatiana Tarasova looks on while meeting with the media on December 5, 2017 in Moscow, after the International Olympic Committee announced the decision to ban Russia from 2018 Winter Olympics. Russia were banned from the 2018 Olympics on December 5, 2017 over state-sponsored doping but the International Olympic Committee said Russian competitors would be able to compete "under strict conditions". / AFP PHOTO / Maxim ZMEYEV

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