Russian athletes will be barred from competing at major international events, including the Olympics, under the country's flag until 2022 after a Swiss court on Thursday upheld doping sanctions but halved the original four-year ban.
The ruling will leave Russian athletes without their flag and national anthem at next year's Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, a severe blow to Russian sport which has been tarnished in recent years by a string of doping scandals.
The World Anti-Doping Agency had originally banned Russia from the world's top sporting events for four years in December 2019, but the sanctions could not be implemented until the end of the appeal process.