Is OAR carrying the Russian flag at the Closing Ceremony?

The IOC may allow the Olympic Athletes from Russia to carry and walk behind the Russian flag at the Pyeongchang 2018 Closing Ceremony.

As you may or may not recall, Russia (the country) was banned from the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics on account of systematic and widespread doping at Sochi. It was then decided athletes who were deemed clean would be allowed to compete under the Olympic flag as “OAR,” or, the Olympic Athletes from Russia. As of Friday, and as OAR, Russians have won 14 medals: one gold (figure skating), five silver and eight bronze. Now, the IOC will rule on whether or not the athletes will be able to walk in the Closing Ceremony behind the Russian flag.

The International Olympic Committee apparently went about aggregating responses from Olympians to help inform their decision. The opinions apparently varied quite a bit

OAR is one of the largest delegations at the games, with 168 members. According to Ruggiero, an IOC member, 75 percent of the Russian athletes in Pyeongchang were not on the suspended Sochi squad.

Per USA Today, the IOC taskforce will submit a report Saturday and a second three-person implementation panel will give a recommendation to the IOC executive board, which will then make a decision. (This is incredibly in-character for the tediously bureaucratic IOC.)

Reuters reports that a majority of IOC officials support restoring Russia’s “nation” status, despite one case of doping from a Russian athlete on the mixed doubles curling team.

Next: Best Olympian from each state

The Closing Ceremony will be available to stream live at 6 a.m. ET, likely without any commentary. NBC will then show the ceremony at 8 p.m. ET in primetime with all the host works and occasionally offensive cultural tidbits. With the Opening Ceremony, NBC did not make the broadcast available to watch as replay during the day and its likely the same with the Closing Ceremony. Which is to say, you have two options: 6 a.m or 8 p.m.