CAS lifts life bans of 28 Russians

Country reclaims nine medals at Sochi Games after ruling

Twenty-eight Russian athletes have had their Olympic doping bans overturned and their results from the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi reinstated after their appeals were upheld by sport’s highest tribunal on Thursday.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said in a statement that it had found insufficient evidence during last week’s hearing in Geneva that the 28, banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), were guilty of anti-doping violations in Sochi.

However, it is not clear yet whether any of the 28 will be able to compete in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which start on February 9.

“With respect to these 28 athletes, the appeals are upheld, the sanctions annulled and their individual results achieved in Sochi 2014 are reinstated,” said the Lausannebased tribunal.

Thus Russia roared back to the top of the medals table of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

The Russian team initially won 33 medals in Sochi, including 13 golds, to put it ahead of Norway and Canada.

But after the IOC imposed sanctions, Russia slipped down to fourth in the medals table.

However, the CAS decision means Russia can reclaim two golds, six silvers and a bronze, putting it back, in theory, on top of the 2014 Olympic medals table.

Eleven other athletes were confirmed by CAS to have committed doping violations. However, CAS reduced their lifetime Olympic bans to a suspension from this year’s Games.

The IOC had previously banned Russia from Pyeongchang as a result of its “unprecedented systematic manipulation” of the anti-doping system.

Individual Russian athletes are able to compete as neutrals if they can prove their anti-doping credentials, but the IOC said Thursday that the 28 would not necessarily be invited to Pyeongchang. “Not being sanctioned does not automatically confer the privilege of an invitation,” it said.

The confirmation of 11 cases “clearly demonstrates once more the existence of the systemic manipulation of the antidoping system at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014,” it added. The IOC regretted that CAS “did not take this proven existence of the systemic manipulation of the anti-doping system into consideration for the other 28 cases.”

Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov said the CAS ruling had restored the “good name” of Russian athletes, Interfax news agency reported.

Russia has repeatedly denied any state involvement in the doping which was exposed by an independent report commissioned by the World AntiDoping Agency.

CAS said its mandate was “not to determine generally whether there was an organized scheme allowing the manipulation of doping control samples... but was strictly limited to dealing with 39 individual cases and to assess the evidence applicable to each athlete on an individual basis.”