Hundreds of drug cheats will benefit from the postponement of this summer's Olympics as they will now be eligible to compete in the rearranged Games.
World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka says bans are determined by a set time and not what competitions athletes might miss.
He said in the Times: "A ban is about the length of time, it is not dedicated to concrete sports events and if they happen or not.
"There is no provision in the code for anti-doping organisations to cherry-pick periods of time in which the athlete would have more or fewer events to compete in.
"While an athlete cannot choose when he or she would like to be ineligible, an anti-doping organisation cannot either."
The new Games, postponed for the first time in history because of the coronavirus pandemic, are set to start on 23 July, 2021.
In other Olympic news, FIFA has raised the age limit to 24 for the men's football tournament at next summer's Games.
The tournament is usually for under-23s, but the governing body has made the change to allow players who were eligible for the Tokyo Games this summer to still take part next year.
Any player born on or after 1 January, 1997 will be able to play, plus the three allocated over-aged players.
The men's tournament will kick off before the 23 July opening ceremony in Tokyo, while the women's event has no age limit.
