Vitaly Mutko: Russians deserve to be treated as ‘clean and honest’
Russian athletes whose doping bans were lifted deserve to be treated as "clean and honest" at the Pyeongchang Olympics, Russian Deputy Prime Minister
Vitaly Mutko said Friday. The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Thursday reinstated 28 Russians who had been disqualified from the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and lifted their life bans from the games. The other 11 Russians remained disqualified.
Mutko told The Associated Press the 28 athletes cleared by CAS "are clean and honest, so give them the chance to compete at the Olympics."
Russia wants to send
15 of the 28 athletes to Pyeongchang but the International Olympic Committee has yet to issue invitations. Some other athletes are already retired.
The 28 include gold medal-winning skeleton slider Alexander Tretiakov and cross-country ski gold medalist Alexander Legkov, as well as silver medalist speedskater
Olga Fatkulina.
Mutko added that despite years of doping scandals and the requirement to compete under the Olympic flag as "Olympic Athletes from Russia," Russia's eligible athletes are in a positive mood.
"All of the athletes have gone (to Pyeongchang) fired up to compete," he said.
Mutko said the CAS verdicts were proof that Russia was unfairly victimized and that evidence from former Sochi doping lab director
Grigory Rodchenkov — who said he tampered with samples on orders from the Sports Ministry then headed by Mutko — was worthless.
"Discrediting Russia was fashionable," Mutko said, but "as soon as they got to a cross-examination, some elementary basis in law, it all fell apart immediately."
Russia is considering whether it could yet overturn the bans for the remaining 11 athletes, Mutko said. However, the next battle is likely to be over the IOC's decision to exclude certain top Russians from an invite list it says should contain only those who are most likely to be clean.
With only a week to go until the Pyeongchang Olympics, time is fast running out.
Mutko hinted the invitation process, headed by former French Sports Minister Valerie
Fourneyron, was an attempt to hurt Russia's medal chances.
"It seems like someone's picked up a pencil and gone through all the sports and removed or, let's say, reduced the Russian national team's competitiveness at the Olympics," he said. "We're going to support our athletes to the end in their attempts to get an invitation to the Olympics."
Mutko himself is barred from the Olympics for life by the IOC, which ruled last month his Sports Ministry failed to ensure the antidoping program in Sochi worked as it should. He says that wasn't his responsibility and says he's filed an appeal, though it won't be heard until after the Pyeongchang Games.
Virgin Islands loses appeal to get Olympic entry
The U.S. Virgin Islands won't compete at the Pyeongchang Olympics despite having one athlete meet the qualifying standard.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport says its judging panel dismissed an appeal by the Virgin Islands Olympic Committee to get a quota place in women's skeleton for Katie Tannenbaum.
The court says no place was available and "the International Olympic Committee was not in position to grant her a qualification."
The Virgin Islands did not earn a quota place in the 20-women lineup allocated by the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.
Tannenbaum had a best placing of 24th in World Cups this season, two weeks ago at Koenigssee, Germany.
The Virgin Islands sent one Alpine skier to the 2014 Sochi Olympics in women's giant slalom.
FROM WIRE REPORTS