Sport court lifts bans on 28 dope row Russians
The Court of Arbitration for Sport yesterday lifted life bans on 28 of the 43 Russians accused of doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, meaning some could compete at this month’s Pyeongchang Games.
Sport’s top court said there was not enough evidence that the athletes had benefited from a system of state-sponsored doping at the last Winter Games, hosted by Russia in Sochi.
The CAS said in its judgment: “In 28 cases, the evidence collected was found to be insufficient to establish that an anti-doping rule violation was committed by the athletes concerned.
“The evidence put forward by the IOC in relation to this matter did not have the same weight in each individual case.”
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said the Russian president was “very glad” about the ruling.
The International Olympic Committee has banned Russia as a team from competing at Pyeongchang over the doping scandal, although 169 Russian athletes were cleared to take part as neutrals.
The Olympic body reacted to the CAS verdict by saying that “not being sanctioned does not automatically confer the privilege of an invitation” to the Games.
Forty-two Russians – bobsleighers, cross-country skiers, competitors in the skeleton and ice hockey players – appealed against the bans at the CAS.
The CAS ruled that 11 of the Russians who appealed had been guilty of doping but lifted the life bans imposed on them, instead barring them only from competing at the Pyeongchang Olympics that start next Friday.
Among those whose life bans were scrapped is Alexander Legkov, 34, who won gold in Sochi in the 50-kilometre freestyle cross-country skiing event and silver in the 4x10km relay, only to be denied as his results were annulled after doping allegations.
Last week’s mass hearing of Russian athletes forced CAS to temporarily move its headquarters in Lausanne to a large conference centre in Geneva.
The hearings at the CAS were a result of allegations of a vast state-sponsored doping programme contained in a report into Sochi by sports law professor Richard McLaren for the World Anti-Doping Agency.