The International Olympic Committee lifts its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee lifted its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, Shamil Tarpischev told journalists on Wednesday. The ROC’s honorary president and a member of the IOC, Tarpischev says “all tests” by the IOC found that Russian athletes “are clean.” The Russian Olympic Committee doesn’t need to take any further action, Tarpischev says. It’s reinstatement is now automatic.

The IOC suspended the ROC on December 5, 2017, just months before the Winter Olympics took place in South Korea, arguing that Moscow operated a state-sponsored doping program. Because of the ban, Russian athletes were barred from competing under their national flag. They were forced to appear in “neutral” uniforms, under the Olympic flag and anthem.

When the men’s ice hockey team triumphed, however, the players and their wives threw caution to the wind, belting out the lyrics of the Russian national anthem without the music.