Olympics - Please help me understand

[El Paso Eagle]

Russia is banned from international competitions in 2019 for 4 years due to their rampant cheating.

Yet the same people are allowed to participate as the Russian Olympic Committee. That will show those damn Russians.

WHAT A FREAKING JOKE

[greenminer]

Still reading about this, but it looks like they are only allowing Russian athletes that were found to be not associated with the doping program.

They can wear country colors, but Russian flag is banned and no national anthem if you win a gold.

Seems like a sincere attempt to not punish those that didn't do anything wrong.  Another random, uninformed guess: Olympics wanted to preserve some money/viewership.

[Rudy]

Yeah, the athletes who did not commit any violations can compete, just under the IOC flag.  If they win, the IOC Anthem, whatever that is, is played.  They did this during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea too.

[UNTLifer]

I miss the days of the East German women that totally confused me as a young child.