Golden Ahn leads appeals
The Court of Arbitration for Sport says six-time Olympic gold medallist Viktor Ahn is among 32 Russian athletes who have filed appeals seeking spots at the PyeongChang Olympics.
The 32 athletes failed to pass the mandatory International Olympic Committee vetting for Russian athletes — imposed as a result of Russian doping at the 2014 Olympics — and weren’t invited to the Games.
As well as short-track speed-skating legend Ahn, the athletes include world cross-country skiing champion Sergei Ustyugov and world biathlon champion Anton Shipulin.
The IOC hasn’t said why any of the individual Russians weren’t invited, but has said it used a newly available database detailing past doping when it decided who should be eligible. A hearing is likely today CAS said. Russia Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has denounced the IOC move to ban the Russians despite a CAS ruling that overturned doping bans as “shameful”.
The IOC invited 169 Russians athletes to compete at the Games under the OAR banner without their national symbols and anthem.
IOC president Thomas Bach yesterday faced a barrage of criticism — and entrenched support — from roughly 100 IOC committee members over the decision to exclude many Russian athletes.
Bach called “lively and spirited debate”. That’s an understatement. Two members — Richard Pound and Gerardo Werthein — got into a nasty exchange on the floor of the spacious meeting room, rare in the gentile traditions of the Olympic body.
Pound said the IOC has “failed to protect athletes,” and Werthein accused Pound of speaking out too frequently — often to reporters — and said he “discredits the work that is being done by the IOC.”
Werthein says “this is not Mr Pound’s organisation. But this is the IOC”. it a