The Russian doping scandal in the Olympic Games has been a major focal point of the upcoming 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang.

More information has been brought into light as the Russian drug-testing facility responsible for testing their athletes that compete in the winter games has been declared by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), as “non-compliant." The implications of the scale of this scandal are extremely detrimental to Russia’s stance within the Olympic competition. Forfeiture of medals can be forced on them if any athlete, in any event, is suspected of doping, and the accusations and suspicions will only increase as Russia fights against WADA and other Olympic committees.

Currently, Russia is awaiting a possible suspension from participating in all activities in the 2018 Olympics.

This “death penalty” is not unheard of but is certainly rare, with most suspensions being incurred in the 20^th century on countries who allied with Germany in the world wars. Russia has seen its fair share of doping scandal, with the 1980 Olympic Games being held in Moscow being renowned for a majority of medalists being suspected of doping. Recently Russia has been in hot water after earlier this month, Russian Olympic athletes admitted to using banned substances given to them by Grigory Rodchenkov. Rodchenkov was the lead scientist who headed Russia’s primary anti-doping laboratory from 2005 to 2015.

Russia’s doping violation has also had repercussions in other venues. FIFA has notified Russia that failing to adhere to the drug-testing process set forth by the Olympic committee could also result in a suspension given by FIFA preventing them from participating in the World Cup. If Russia would receive the suspension, they would probably attempt to “boycott” the Olympics to make it appear that they don’t respect the decision of a ban. The effectiveness of this however would be a matter of opinion in terms of who backs down first, because the ban if given, would still be in effect preventing Russia from competing.

Russia is expecting a ruling on the fate of their 2018 Olympic run on December 5^th.