'I have questions': Russian high-jump star Lasitskene slams officials

One of Russia's top athletes, three-time world champion high jumper Mariya Lasitskene, on Tuesday called sports officials to account after her country was banned for four years from international competition.

In her open letter published by Championat.com sports website, Lasitskene, a longtime critic of Russian sports officials, demanded to know who has been punished over the country's doping scandal and the fact that she cannot compete under the Russian flag.

Lasitskene missed the 2016 Rio Olympics because of the doping crisis and had threatened to leave Russia so as not to miss the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

"The Russian flag was taken from me at the end of 2015," the 26-year-old wrote, calling herself "an athlete who has a lot of questions".

"Have we done an internal investigation? Who was punished?" Lasitskene said.

"Why is our athletics still using banned substances, and coaches of athletes caught doping are still working while officials in charge are falsifying official documents?"