Olympia 2018: IOC reviews Olympic invitations for 15 Russians

Three days after CAS lifted the lifelong doping ban on 28 Russian winter sports athletes, the International Olympic Committee discussed a possible Olympic invitation for 13 of these athletes to Pyeongchang. This was announced by the IOC on Saturday.

Two more of these 28 people could be invited as trainers. The remaining 13 athletes are no longer active and are therefore out of the question for a start in Pyeongchang.

“We will look at each of these cases individually before making a decision,”said IOC spokesman Mark Adams on Saturday. The review will be carried out by a committee of the IOC, chaired by the former French Minister of Sport, Valerie Fourneyron.

Meanwhile, in independent cases, the objections of six Russian winter sportsmen were rejected by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court against their lifelong Olympic suspensions. The IOC had refused to admit these six athletes, including five-time world speed skating champion Pavel Kulishnikov, to the invitation list of “Olympic athletes from Russia” for Pyeongchang because they were involved in doping cases during their career.

Beside Kulishnikov, Denis Yuskov, Tatyana Borodulina (both ice speed skating), Irina Starych, Alexander Loginov (both biathlon) and ski jumper Dimitri Vasilyev were involved.