The head of Russia's anti-doping agency said Monday that his country had "no chance" of winning an appeal against a four-year international sporting ban he said was a tragedy for clean athletes.
"There is no chance of winning this case in court," RUSADA chief Yury Ganus told AFP after the World Anti-Doping Agency imposed the ban that will rule Russia out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
RUSADA's supervisory board is set to meet on December 19 to take a decision on whether to appeal the ban, he said.
"This is a tragedy," he said.
"Clean athletes are seeing their rights limited."
The head of Russia's swimming federation, Vladimir Salnikov, said the country's athletes "must go to the Olympics whatever the situation."
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