CAS lifts lifetime Olympic bans for 28 Russian athletes

Pyeongchang (SID) The International Olympic Committee has suffered a serious defeat at the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in connection with the Russian state doping scandal. The CAS on Thursday lifted the IOC's lifetime Olympic bans on 28 Russian athletes because it could not identify any individual violations of anti-doping rules. The successes achieved by the athletes at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi are also valid again. In eleven other cases, violations were identified and the objections were only partially confirmed. The affected athletes remain removed from the results lists in Sochi, but the CAS lifted the lifelong bans. The athletes, including double Olympic champion Alexander Zubkov (bobsleigh), remain banned from the games in Pyeongchang. However, the CAS ruling does not mean that the fully exonerated athletes, including the Sochi Olympic champions Alexander Legkow (cross-country skiing) and Alexander Tretyakov (skeleton), will now be allowed to take part in the Winter Games in Pyeongchang (February 9th to 25th). Since they have not received an invitation from the IOC, they would first have to sue for their right to start. This attitude has not changed as a result of the CAS ruling. "Since the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended, Russian athletes can only compete in Pyeongchang with an IOC invitation," said an IOC press release. The CAS said that in 28 cases it considered the evidence presented by the IOC to be "insufficient" to sustain the allegation of a doping violation. The Sports Court of Arbitration, which announced its decision in the Olympic city of Pyeongchang, did not initially provide detailed reasons for the verdict. The court emphasized that it did not rule on the IOC's finding that there was a state-run doping system in Russia, but rather examined the individual culpability of each athlete. The IOC fears “serious consequences for the anti-doping fight” after the CAS ruling. The press release continued: "The IOC will carefully consider the reasons for the judgment when they become available and will consider consequences including an appeal to the Swiss Federal Court." The renowned German sports lawyer Michael Lehner spoke of “another embarrassment for the IOC, which wanted to mark the strong man.” The umbrella organization's push forward didn't work. "The question was: Can the IOC rush ahead like this without a doping trial having taken place - the CAS gave the answer. The IOC also has to fit into the rules that it helped create," Lehner told the SID. A total of 42 Russian athletes took part in the CAS. Initially, only 39 cases were dealt with, those of biathletes Yana Romanova, Olga Viluchina and Olga Saitseva were postponed. The three-member panel of judges also included the Augsburg legal scholar Christoph Vedder and the Munich lawyer Dirk-Reiner Martens. WADA special investigator Richard McLaren and key witness Grigory Rodchenkov also testified. The IOC banned a total of 43 Russian athletes from participating in the Olympic Games for life. Only bobsledder Maxim Belugin, who came fourth in Sochi, did not file an appeal.

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CAS lifts lifetime Olympic bans for 28 Russian athletes

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