The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld appeals from 28 out of 39 Russian athletes who were given lifetime Olympic bans for doping violations at the 2014 Sochi Games, it said on Thursday.
CAS said that in the 28 cases, the sanctions imposed by the International Olympic Committee on the athletes had been annulled due to insufficient evidence and their results at the Sochi Olympics had been reinstated.
CAS confirmed that anti-doping violations had been committed in 11 other cases but reduced the life bans from the Olympic Games to a ban from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang next month.
Responding to the decision, Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov said on Thursday that he was happy with the CAS ruling which restored Russian athletes’ “good name and return their decorations”, Interfax news agency reported.
Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov also said that the Russian athletes were counting on the International Olympic Committee accepting the CAS decision and that it would allow them to compete in forthcoming Games, RIA news agency reported.
