Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA, via Shutterstock
The president of Russia’s track and field governing body was among seven people suspended on Thursday for obstructing an antidoping investigation, deepening a crisis for Russian sports that soon could see the country barred from next summer’s Tokyo Olympics and other major international sporting events.
The Athletics Integrity Unit, an independent investigative arm of track and field’s global governing body, which was recently renamed World Athletics, said it had charged the Russian federation president, Dmitri Shlyakhtin; four other officials; a coach; and an athlete with numerous offenses, including providing forged documents, false explanations and tampering with evidence in a case involving a Russian high jumper accused of failing to make himself available for drug testing.