Russian Olympic Committee loses appeal against IOC suspension

The Russian Olympic Committee has lost an appeal against its suspension by the International Olympic Committee.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Friday that it had dismissed the ROC’s appeal against the suspension imposed in October. The IOC objected to the ROC incorporating four sports bodies representing regions of eastern Ukraine, which it calls “a breach of the Olympic Charter”.

Russia was already barred by the IOC from entering athletes for the Paris Olympics under its own flag, and the suspension doesn’t stop the IOC’s efforts for Russians to compete as neutral athletes without national symbols.

CAS said it found the suspension issued by the IOC executive board “did not breach the principles of legality, equality, predictability or proportionality.”

The ROC said the CAS ruling, which has not yet been published in full, “practically copied out the IOC’s arguments” and ignored the Russian case. The ROC can appeal to the Swiss supreme court but has not said if it plans to do so.

“This CAS ruling is yet more evidence that civil and sports discrimination directed against Russians has reached an unprecedented scale in the run-up to the Games in Paris,” the ROC said in a statement.

The ROC said that CAS “confirmed that the Olympic team of Russia, Russian athletes and officials will not take part in the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris, just as it excluded any possible cooperation by the ROC with athletes who the IOC recognizes as meeting the criteria of so-called neutrality.”