Olympic Games: Sochi doping scandal: IOC suspends Olympic champion Saizewa

The manipulation and doping scandal surrounding host Russia at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi is taking on even greater dimensions. As the IOC announced on Friday, the number of cases investigated by the Oswald Disciplinary Commission increased by a further eight to 36.

“As some investigations, including the forensic analysis of the bottles (the doping tests, d. Red.), are not yet completed, it cannot be ruled out that there are new discoveries that justify the opening of further cases,”the IOC announced. Up to now, 28 cases had been based on the McLaren report, 26 of which have been closed since Friday. 25 athletes were excluded from the Olympic Games for life, in one case no penalty was imposed.

On Friday, the IOC imposed a lifelong ban on the biathlon biathlon Olympic champion Olga Saizewa and cross-country skiers Julia Chekaleva and Anastasia Dozenko. Saizewa (39) has been retired for almost three years, and the two cross-country skiers were still competing in the second-class FIS Cup until the end of November.

The three-time biathlon world champion Saizewa won the Olympic silver medal in 2014 in Sochi with the Russian relay team that won her gold medal in 2006 and 2010. Previously, her relay colleagues Jana Romanowa and Olga Wiluchina had already been locked up for Olympic Games for the rest of their lives.

Dozenko (31) finished sixth in the team sprint with Julia Ivanova in Sochi. Chekaleva was sixth with the relay and eleventh over 10 km. At the 2013 World Cup in Val di Fiemme, she also snatched away over 10 km of Miriam Gössner bronze by 0.5 seconds. Five Sochi Olympic champions are among the athletes who have been banned for life so far.

Under the auspices of the IOC Commission led by Denis Oswald of Switzerland, all available samples of Russian athletes taken at the 2014 Games have been reanalyzed. Some of these analyses have not yet been completed.

The Oswald Commission also announced that all hearings of Russian athletes attending the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February) will be completed shortly.