IOC declares 389 Russian athletes eligible for Winter Olympics
Friday 19 January 2018 22:53, UK
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it has created a pool of 389 Russians who are eligible to compete under a neutral flag at next month's Winter Olympics amid the country's doping scandal.
An IOC panel whittled down an initial list of 500 to create what the IOC calls "a pool of clean athletes". It is not clear why 111 other Russians were rejected by the IOC.
The IOC did not list the athletes who were accepted or rejected, but said it had not included any of the 46 the IOC previously banned for doping at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
Valerie Fourneyron, the former French Sports Minister leading the invitation process, said the pool also left out any Russians who had been suspended in the past for doping offences.
"This means that a number of Russian athletes will not be on the list," she said. "Our work was not about numbers, but to ensure that only clean athletes would be on the list."
That would appear to rule out potential Russian medal contenders like former NHL hockey player Anton Belov and world champion speedskater Pavel Kulizhnikov, both of whom served bans in the past but have since resumed competing.
"More than 80 per cent of the athletes in this pool did not compete at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014," the IOC said in a statement. "This shows that this is a new generation of Russian athletes."
The IOC will use the pool list to issue invitations to Russian athletes to compete in Pyeongchang, after checking their record of drug testing and retesting some samples they gave previously.
The IOC also said it recommended barring 51 coaches and 10 medical staff "associated with athletes who have been sanctioned" for Sochi doping.
The Russian Olympic Committee was allowed to select its preferred athletes despite being suspended by the IOC last month over drug use and an elaborate cover-up at the 2014 Olympics, including swapping dirty samples for clean urine.
Russian sports officials say they simply want to give the IOC recommendations to ensure that top athletes are not accidentally left out in favour of reserves.
The Russians will officially be known as "Olympic Athletes from Russia", and they will wear grey and red uniforms that do not feature any Russian logos. If they win gold medals, the Olympic flag will be flown and the Olympic anthem played.
