Two months ago, the International Olympic Committee banned Russia from competing in this year’s Winter Olympics. This ban came from the 2012 London Olympics where Russia was punished for “systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system.” However, on February 8th, the US curling team beat a Russian team that was competing in a curling match. Since the ban, there have been a total of 169 Russian athletes signed up and cleared by the IOC to compete in all 15 of this year’s events. The athletes are to wear clothing that says “Olympic athletes from Russia” instead of just the name of the country. This is because just the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended and not the individual athletes; the IOC offered these individual athletes the chance to compete under prescribed conditions.
