Olympia 2018: IOC does not invite 15 Russians to Olympia

The International Olympic Committee will not allow the 13 Russian athletes and two coaches, whose lifelong Olympic suspensions have been lifted by the International Sports Court, to participate in the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February). This was announced by the IOC on Monday.

“The panel has again done a great job,”said IOC President Thomas Bach, who stressed that the cases had been handled anonymously. This made the decisions so valuable that the responsible commissions had “worked conscientiously and in an equal and fair manner for all athletes”.

Previously, an IOC committee chaired by the former French Minister of Sport, Valerie Fourneyron, had examined each case individually. The committee unanimously opposed invitations by the 15 Russians, according to a statement by the IOC.

The Fourneyron panel has decided “that none of the 15 people will be invited to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang”, the IOC’s announcement said.

One of the reasons for this was additional information that the committee received and which raised further doubts about the integrity of the athletes. This included information from the Moscow Control Laboratory’s database, which came into the hands of the World Anti-Doping Agency last November.

In total, CAS has lifted the lifelong Olympic suspensions of 28 Russian winter sportsmen because of violations of the anti-doping guidelines at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014.13 of them are no longer active and therefore do not qualify for a start in Pyeongchang.

Due to systematic doping at the 2014 Winter Games, the Russian National Olympic Committee was suspended by the IOC at the beginning of December. 169 clean Russian athletes are allowed to start in Pyeongchang under neutral flag and anthem.