Russian athletes have proved they can win without doping insists ROC chief

Russian athletes have won 39 medals in Tokyo to date, including 11 golds

The president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) said his team's medals at the Tokyo Games are the "best answer" to critics who have questioned why Russian athletes are allowed to compete following doping scandals. Stanislav Pozdnyakov told media on August 1 that critics "supposed that as a matter of fact our athletes can't compete without doping", but that Russian athletes in Tokyo "proved the opposite not just with words but with their deeds and results." Russia is competing under the Russian Olympic Committee banner in Tokyo after a ruling which barred the country's name, flag and anthem from the Olympics and other major sporting events. That punishment came after the World Anti-Doping Agency found that data from a drug-testing laboratory in Moscow had been tampered with as a part of Russia's state-sponsored doping programme.