IOC may appeal CAS decision to lift Russian athlete bans
Thursday 8 February 2018 09:06, UK
The International Olympic Committee is considering an appeal against the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling which overturned lifetime doping bans for 28 Russians.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Thursday that evidence was "insufficient" that the 28 including several medallists had broken anti-doping rules at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
In a further 11 cases, anti-doping violations were confirmed, but their lifetime suspensions have been reduced just to cover the 2018 Winter Games, which start in Pyeongchang on February 9.
The IOC has complained the CAS rulings could "have a serious impact on the future fight against doping" with the committee feeling shocked at the decision.
Russia's sports minister Pavel Kolobkov said "justice has finally triumphed", insisting those who were accused of doping were "clean athletes", but the outcome has not gone down well in IOC circles.
Chief of the committee Thomas Bach said on Sunday: "We are considering an appeal. But you can only look into an appeal seriously when you have the reasoned decision, which we do not have.
"We need the reasoned decision to see whether we have any prospect of success. If we have any such prospect, we will appeal."
The IOC has been told it may be the end of February before a reasoned decision is available, something Bach described as "extremely unsatisfactory".
Despite not receiving the reasoned decision from CAS, Bach hopes the decision on whether or not to invite the Russian athletes affected will be made before the start of the Winter Olympics.
Regarding the Russian cases, Bach added: "We have made it very clear that the absence of a sanction by CAS does not mean that you're entitled to receive an invitation from the IOC.
"Receiving this invitation is a privilege for a clean Russian athlete. Therefore, we have been following and we will be following the IOC decision of December 5 and have forwarded these cases to the independent panel for review.
"This panel will make its recommendation to the implementation group and this group then, as a delegation of the IOC executive board, will take a final decision. I hope very much that this decision will come in the next couple of days."
There will be Russian athletes in Pyeongchang, competing under the Olympic flag and with the Olympic anthem played.
Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) will be the third largest athlete delegation, with 169 athletes. Only the United States and Canada will have more competitors.
