This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A decision on an appeal by Russian athletes to compete at the Winter Olympics will be issued on Friday at 11am in Pyeonchang (2am GMT), the court of arbitration for sport has announced.

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Cas has been handling several appeals from the Russians after the International Olympic Committee invited 169 carefully screened Russian athletes to compete as independents in South Korea.

Russia was banned from Pyeongchang over the Sochi 2014 doping scandal and the IOC had banned dozens of athletes from the games for life and stripped their Sochi Games medals following several investigations.

However Cas upheld the appeal of 28 athletes due to insufficient evidence but the IOC still refused to invite them saying the evidence was there. Cas is also handling appeals of Russians, including the Olympic champion skater Viktor Ahn, who had not been named in the doping investigations or had any prior doping offences but were still not invited due to doping suspicions by the IOC.

Quick guide Why were the Russia doping bans overturned? Show Hide Why did Cas overturn the lifetime Olympics bans on 28 Russians? It says there was “insufficient” evidence to establish that an anti-doping rule violation had been committed in 28 of the 39 cases it investigated. But haven’t the IOC banned the Russian Olympic Committee from the Winter Olympics for state sponsored doping in Sochi? Indeed. The Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov provided testimony and thousands of documents to support his claims, which were accepted by the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency. However Cas says it did not look at systematic doping – just the 39 appeals against lifetime bans from Russian athletes. What is the International Olympic Committee’s reaction? It expressed surprise that Cas had used a higher standard of proof than in previous doping cases, and said the rulings damaged the fight against doping. What are the immediate consequences? The Sochi medal winners among the 28 “cleared” Russians get their medals back - returning Russia on top of the medal table. And in the longer term? As things stand, around 160 Russians have been granted permission to compete as neutral athletes under the banner of Olympic Athlete from Russia after being cleared of doping by an IOC anti-doping panel last week. However some of the 28 “cleared” athletes are preparing an appeal so that figure could rise. What is the IOC’s response? Resistance - for now. The result of the Cas decision does not mean that athletes from the group of 28 will be invited,” it said. Russia’s lawyers may be able to barge the door open regardless.

Thomas Bach defended the IOC’s approach to the Russian doping problem. Bach insisted the committee dealt with the issue as best it can and the organisation’s president says the IOC, Cas and the World Anti-Doping Agency will convene to ensure a repeat of the chaotic build-up to a second successive Olympics, after Rio 2016, will not be repeated. He said: “The timing there was not in our hands. Studies had to be done, evidence had to be provided, fair hearings for the Russian athletes had to be offered.”

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Bach insisted the IOC could not act solely on the damning findings of systemic doping by Russia at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics alone as any disciplinary action resulting from the McLaren report would not have been successful. He declined to speculate on the outcome of the Cas hearings but expects the Cas president, John Coates, and his Wada equivalent, Craig Reedie, to discuss the way forward.



