The CAS said in a press statement on Tuesday the five skiers - Alexey Petukhov, Evgenia Shapovalova, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov - remain provisionally suspended and will not be able to take part in the 2017 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships.

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the decision of the International Ski Federation (FIS) on provisional suspension of five Russian cross country skiers from competitions over suspected violations of anti-doping rules.

"The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has today rejected urgent requests for provisional measures filed by five Russian cross country skiers - Alexey Petukhov, Evgenia Shapovalova, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov. The athletes sought to stay the execution of the decisions taken by the FIS Doping Panel on 25 January 2017 (Alexander Legov and Evgeniy Belov) and on 6 February 2017 (Alexey Petukhov, Evgenia Shapovalova and Maxim Vylegzhanin), which confirmed their provisional suspensions, in order to be able to compete at the 2017 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships that will take place in Lahti, Finland from 22 February to 5 March 2017. Consequently, the athletes remain provisionally suspended," the Court said.

On December 23, the International Ski Federation (FIS) slapped provisional suspensions on six Russian cross-country skiers over alleged violations of anti-doping rules at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

The athletes subjected to the provisional suspensions are four male skiers, namely Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Eevgeniy Belov and Alexey Petukhov and two female skiers - Julia Ivanova and Evgenia Shapovalova. The decision was made in the wake of the infamous McLaren Report.

According to Part Two of the report, delivered in early December in London by the WADA Independent Commission and its chairman, Canadian sports law professor Richard McLaren, more than 1,000 Russian athletes competing in summer, winter and Paralympic sports could have been involved in an alleged manipulation scheme to conceal positive doping tests.

Part Two of McLaren’s report claimed in particular that doping samples of 12 Russian medalists of 2014 Winter Games in Sochi had been tampered with. In addition, doping tests of two more Russian athletes, who won four gold medals of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, had been falsified as well.