It topped the medal table at the 2001 tournament, overtaking the United States following the redistribution of medals due to doping cases. Russia also finished top of the medal table at the 2013 Moscow Championships, but lost this position due to doping disqualifications of its athletes. Russia's performance at the competition has been strongly affected by doping. Furthermore, the country's doping problems are distinct because in Russia doping is supplied to the athletes by the government. The country was banned from competing in 2017 due to the state-sponsored doping and Russians had to gain special dispensation to compete as Authorised Neutral Athletes. Various members of the Russian delegation have been banned for doping at every edition of the competition it has competed at, with the exceptions of 2003 and 2015 (though Russian medalists in both those years were subsequently banned).