Bob: IOC blocks three more Russian bobsleigh athletes

In the Russian doping scandal, the IOC has blocked three more bobsleigh athletes for life for the Olympic Games. The Sochi fourth-place runner Alexander Kasyanov, along with his charges Ilwir Chusin and Alexei Pushkarjow, will be removed from the results of the 2014 Winter Games in Russia and will no longer be allowed to take part in any Olympic Games in future.

This was announced by the IOC on Wednesday without first giving reasons for its decision.

The number of Russian athletes banned by the IOC has thus increased to 22. The Commission of Executive Member Denis Oswald, which is responsible for sanctioning the 28 suspicious Russian Sochi starters referred to in the McLaren report (including twelve medal winners), is currently taking tough action.

The sanction against former bob pilot Alexander Subkow caused a special sensation last Friday. The two-time gold medallist of Sochi is acting president of the Russian Bobsleigh Federation.

However, the ban on Kasyanov has now also had a major impact on Russian bobsleigh racing: the 34-year-old is the only bobsleigher to have been affected and has so far been regarded as the biggest national hope for the upcoming 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang (9th place). till 25. February).

Unlike other international federations, the bobsleigh and skeleton federation IBSF has followed the decisions of the IOC so far and imposed provisional suspensions for the World Cup on the athletes concerned. A decision on Kasyanov is now expected at a reasonable time interval.

In Sochi, Kasyanov had become fourth in the small and large sleds, and in his four-man bobsleigh, Chusin and Pushkarjow were also sitting. Kasyanov’s third Olympia slider, Maxim Belugin, did not mention the IOC on Wednesday. German athletes do not advance to medal ranks by the decision.

Subkov had won gold in the two-man and four-man competitions in Sochi, and Russia lost first place in the medal table of the 2014 games after being penalised by the 43-year-old. Only nine gold medals are left for the host, Norway (11) and Canada (10).

Among other things, Sochi Olympic champion Alexander Tretyakov had already been banned for life in the Skeleton. Previously, the IOC had also withdrawn cross-country Olympic champion Alexander Legkov and his team-mate Yevgeny Belov from all Olympic functions.