The chaos was over, the big party was saved: a few hours before the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang there was a big relief. The CAS Sports Court had confirmed the suspension of 47 Russians from the Olympic Winter Games in South Korea. The IOC and the DOSB were satisfied.
We welcome this decision, which supports the fight against doping and brings clarity to all athletes,”the ring order said. For the IOC and its president Thomas Bach, who are already in the crisis of credibility, a different decision would have meant nothing less than a catastrophe. Russian athletes involved in the state doping scandal in Sochi would then also have started in Pyeongchang.
It would have been fatal if athletes such as Legkov and others had been able to use CAS at the last minute to compete here once again, in order to challenge the deserved successes of many years of work for clean sportsmen”, DOSB President Alfons Hörmann told the SID.
47 Russian athletes and coaches had fought to the end for their start and filed a lawsuit in the ad hoc court for not receiving an invitation to Pyeongchang from the IOC for doping violations and suspicions. CAS considered this to be justified in its reasoning. The IOC’s decision was not in any way discriminatory or unfair.
The athletes concerned include the Sochi Olympic champion Alexander Legkov (cross-country skiing), Xenia Stolbowa (figure skating), Alexander Tretyakov (skeleton), Viktor Ahn (short track) and Anton Schipulin and Alexei Wolkow (biathlon).
Previously, 169 Russian athletes had received the green light to participate. They must compete in South Korea as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” under a neutral flag. Already on Thursday, CAS had rejected the complaint of 13 Russians.
The IOC had only openly invited clean and undamaged Russian athletes to the games in South Korea, responding to investigations into the doping scandal at the Olympic Winter Games four years ago in Sochi, Russia. If CAS had shaken the IOC’s domestic authority for its own event, the consequences would have been incalculable.
Russia showed little sympathy for the CAS judgement of Friday. For Deputy Prime Minister Witali Mutko, the court was not free in his decision:”It was difficult for CAS to make a decision after so much pressure,”said Mutko.
As a former sports minister, Mutko himself was involved in his country’s doping scandal and was banned from the Olympics for life. The IOC had criticized CAS after it lifted the lifelong Olympic penalties against 39 Russian athletes last week.
Bottom line, Whistleblower Gregory Rodchenkov was also dissatisfied with his statements, which had set in motion the uncovering of the doping scandal in his homeland:”I believe that today’s decision is primarily a reaction to the outcry of clean athletes against Olympic corruption and complicity,”said his lawyer Jim Walden, adding:”I hope I will not lose sight of it. For the sake of the Olympic ideal, he must resign.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency has largely responded positively to the verdict:”The timing of the announcement is good,” said President Craig Reedie,”All athletes now know that only Russian athletes who have not violated the anti-doping guidelines start.