Lifelong suspension was lifted from Russian athletes: what’s next

The international sports arbitration in Lausanne satisfied the claims of 28 Russian athletes, recognizing their suspension from the Olympics and lifelong disqualification as unlawful. Claims of 11 more athletes were partially satisfied. Whether the athletes who won the trial will be able to take part in the 2018 Games is not clear, writes Lenta.ru report.

Фото: Depositphotos

CAS acquitted 28 Russians and returned them the medals of the Sochi Olympics

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the appeals of 28 Russian athletes who were banned for life from participation in the Olympic Games by decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Among them were bobsledders Dmitry Trunenkov, Alexei Negodailo, Olga Stulneva, Lyudmila Udobkina, skeletonists Alexander Tretyakov, Sergei Chudinov, Elena Nikitina, Maria Orlova, skiers Alexander Legkov, Evgeny Belov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Alexei Petukhov, Nikita Kryukov, Alexander Bessmertnykh, Evgenia Shapovalova, Natalya Matveeva, skaters Olga Fatkulina, Alexander Rumyantsev, Ivan Skobrev, Artem Kuznetsov, lugers Tatyana Ivanova, Alberta Demchenko, and hockey players Ekaterina Lebedeva, Ekaterina Pashkevich, Tatiana Burina and Ekaterina Smolentseva.

The CAS acknowledged that their anti-doping rule violation had not been confirmed and ruled that their results at the Sochi Olympics should be reinstated. Thus, after the completion of the procedure, the Russian team will return to first place in the team standings: it will have 11 gold medals in its asset, which will allow it to bypass the Norwegian team.

The application of the team "Olympic Athletes from Russia" may expand

According to sports lawyer Mikhail Prokopets, eligible athletes have a good chance of making a trip to Pyeongchang. “This CAS verdict gives our athletes the right to urgently apply to the civil panel and following the best practices, which has already started working in South Korea. If these eligible athletes have met all the qualification requirements for the Games, they are eligible to claim admission to the 2018 Olympics. They have a great chance of being admitted. This panel makes decisions quickly, within a few days, our guys should go there as soon as possible and defend their rights, ”TASS quoted Prokopets as saying.

At the moment, the team, which will perform under the Olympic flag in South Korea, has 169 athletes.

11 athletes found guilty, cases of three more postponed until the end of the 2018 Games

In total, CAS considered 39 appeals of Russians in an accelerated mode. 11 athletes were less fortunate: they were found guilty, but the life ban was replaced by skipping the Olympics in Pyeongchang. The court also refused to restore their results at the Sochi Games.

Among these athletes: bobsledders Alexander Zubkov, Alexei Voevoda, Alexander Kasyanov, Alexei Pushkarev, Ilvir Khuzin, skiers Yulia Ivanova, Yulia Chekaleva, Anastasia Dotsenko, hockey players Galina Skiba, Anna Shibanova, Inna Dyubanyuk. According to the Minister of Sports Pavel Kolobkov, at the moment all athletes have received brief decisions, and the motivational part will be sent to them later. At the same time, CAS postponed consideration of the cases of biathletes Olga Zaitseva, Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova until the end of the Olympics in South Korea.

The Russian Olympic Committee considered that the CAS decision confirms the innocence of Russian athletes

“From the very beginning we were confident in the innocence of our athletes. The arbitration court sided with our guys and made a fair decision, confirming their innocence. We are happy that their well-deserved awards are returned to them, the charges are completely cleared from them. But we still have to fully analyze the situation and carefully study the court's decision," ROC President Alexander Zhukov told TASS.

The organization, following the results of the IOC Executive Committee on December 5, 2017, was disqualified, and Zhukov temporarily lost his membership in the committee. Skeletonist Alexander Tretyakov told about how hard it was during this period for the suspended athletes: “I no longer have any emotions. This year I have had so many things that now I don’t have the strength to rejoice. Do I want to compete in the Olympics? Of course, but not everything depends on me.

The hands of WADA informant Grigory Rodchenkov “performed” at the CAS hearings

Hearings on the cases of suspended Russian athletes began on January 23. Then in Lausanne, the appeals of the skaters were considered. Everyone, except Skobrev, arrived at the meeting and spoke before the court. The main accuser, the former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, also attended the hearing, but remotely via video link. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) informant is so afraid for his life that he did not appear in full - only his hands were visible in the frame.

In connection with this fact, there is a hypothesis that, in fact, Rodchenkov is already dead, and a figurehead is revealing the shocking details of the Russian doping system. The voice recordings, on which Rodchenkov's characteristic accent is clearly audible, allow us to assert the opposite. However, Russian athletes were alarmed not only by the absence of a chemist in the courtroom, but also by the fact that he could not be asked questions. According to the lawyer of domestic athletes, the prosecutor himself was confused in his testimony.

The punishment for the Russians was chosen by the IOC commission led by Denis Oswald

After Rodchenkov's high-profile accusations, the IOC launched an investigation. The commission involved in rechecking doping samples from the Sochi Olympics was headed by Denis Oswald, the former head of the International Rowing Federation, who had gone on promotion. In 2013, Oswald was nominated for the election of the president of the committee, but lost to the incumbent head Thomas Bach and headed the IOC disciplinary commission.

Oswald considered the cases of 46 Russian athletes participating in the 2014 Games. Only three athletes managed to avoid punishment: figure skater Adelina Sotnikova, speed skater Denis Yuskov and hockey player Anna Shokhina. The remaining 43 were less fortunate - they were banned for life from participation in the Olympics, and their results from the Games in Sochi were canceled.

The accused athletes were allowed to speak at the hearing, but this did not affect the IOC verdict. Thus, Russia lost the first place in the unofficial medal standings, and the athletes lost the right to take part in the main tournament of the four years.

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