The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld the appeals of 28 Russian athletes who were given lifetime Olympic bans for doping violations at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
According to CAS, which ruled on the decision by the International Olympic Committee, evidence collected in 28 of the 39 cases “was found to be insufficient to establish that an anti-doping rule violation was committed by the athletes concerned.”
The ruling means that the athletes are no longer banned for life and that their results at the 2014 Olympics have been reinstated, and throws the IOC’s Russia doping policy into turmoil just over a week before the Winter games opens.
In the remaining 11 cases, the decision was partially upheld with the respective athletes declared ineligible for this month’s Games in Pyeongchang which start on February 9.
The decision made by CAS means that the 28 Russian athletes are now cleared to apply for eligibility and selection for the country’s squad for the upcoming Games.
However, to be eligible to compete in South Korea, the 28 would need to be cleared by the IOC Invitation Review Panel and subsequently selected as part of the Russian team of 169.
The IOC handed lifetime bans from any Olympic involvement to the 39 in December, following an independent report, commissioned by the world Olympic body, into doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Games.
‘Systemic manipulation’
Russia, as a nation, has been banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea over the country’s “systemic manipulation” of anti-doping rules, a charge Russia denies.
However, Russian athletes who can prove that they are clean will be “invited” to compete in Pyeongchang, the IOC ruled in December. There they will have compete representing “Olympic Athletes from Russia” — with no use of the Russian flag or national anthem permitted.
The ban on Russia’s involvement in the 2018 Games is the most wide-ranging punishment ever meted out by the IOC on a participating nation, let alone a powerhouse of the Olympic movement.
The country’s Olympic Committee has also been ordered to pay $15 million to reimburse the IOC’s costs of investigating the doping scandal and help set up the new Independent Testing Authority (ITA).
Russia’s suspended Paralympic Committee, which has also been banned from the Paralympic Winter Games, which follow the Olympics in Pyeongchang, is also due to hold a news conference in Moscow Thursday.