CAS decision lifts doping bans for 28 Russian athletes, reinstates Sochi results

Rachel Axon | USA TODAY

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Two separate panels of the Court of Arbitration for Sport have fully or partially struck down International Olympic Committee sanctions for 39 Russian athletes in the Sochi Olympics.

In a decision announced Thursday in Pyeongchang, CAS ruled that in 28 cases the evidence “was found to be insufficient” to establish the athletes committed an anti-doping rule violation.

The decisions reinstate the results for those athletes, which included medalists Alexander Tretiakov and Elena Nikitina in skeleton; Alexander Legkov and Maksim Vylegzhanin in cross-country skiing; Albert Demchenko and Tatyana Ivanova in luge; and Olga Fatkulina in speedskating.

In all, the decisions reinstate nine of the 13 medals the IOC had disqualified.

Only Alexander Zubkov, who piloted the two-man and four-man bobsleds to gold, was found to have an anti-doping rule violation that disqualified a medal.

In the 11 cases that did result in a violation and the disqualification of results, CAS found the athletes ineligible just from the Pyeongchang Olympics rather than for life, as the IOC had issued in its sanctions.

In a release, CAS said, “The mandate of the CAS Panels was not to determine generally whether there was an organized scheme allowing the manipulation of doping control samples in the Sochi laboratory but was strictly limited to dealing with 39 individual cases and to assess the evidence applicable to each athlete on an individual basis.”

It’s unclear if the 28 Russian athletes will be eligible to compete in Pyeongchang, although the Associated Press reported that the attorney representing the athletes said they would seek to participate in the upcoming Games.

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The IOC said in a statement that the CAS decision does not mean the 28 Russian athletes will be invited to the Games.

“This may have a serious impact on the future fight against doping,” the IOC said in a statement. “Therefore, the IOC will analyse the reasoned decisions very carefully once they are available and consider consequences, including an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

“With regard to the participation of athletes from Russia at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, the decision of the IOC Executive Board of 5 December 2017 remains in place. It makes it clear that, since the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) is suspended, Russian athletes can participate in PyeongChang only on invitation by the IOC.”

In December, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee, preventing athletes from competing under their own flag while giving them a path to compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”

In reviewing which athletes would be eligible for that designation, a panel led by Valerie Fourneyron, the head of a newly created testing authority, used a variety of information. That included the findings of the McLaren report and Oswald Commission, an electronic database from the Moscow lab that was obtained by the World Anti-Doping Agency, athlete biological passport information, among several other criteria.

A team of 169 such athletes was chosen after being vetted by the panel. Speedskater Olga Graf will not compete in Pyeongchang after turning down the invitation.

Those athletes who do compete in South Korea will wear “Olympic Athletes from Russia” uniforms and are presented from having the Russian flag anywhere except their housing in the athlete village. The Olympic flag and anthem will be used for those athletes in any ceremony.

The IOC left open the option of flying the Russian flag at the closing ceremony in Pyeongchang provided the ROC, athletes and officials respect and implement the IOC’s sanctions.

The CAS decision means Zubkov, now the president of the Russian bobsled federation, will be banned from Pyeongchang.

It also means U.S. sleds piloted by Steven Holcomb, who died unexpectedly in May, could be upgraded from bronze to silver in the two-man and four-man competitions.

If medals are reallocated, the Swiss sled piloted by Beat Hefti would be upgraded to gold. Latvian pilot Daumants Dreiskens would see his two-man sled upgraded from fifth to bronze – leapfrogging Russia’s second sled that finished fourth but was disqualified – and from silver to gold in four-man.

Of the 43 Russian athletes sanctioned by the IOC, 42 appealed the decisions. CAS held a combined hearing for 39 athletes last week in Geneva. A hearing for three biathletes, including two-time Sochi medalist Olga Vilukina, was postponed.

CAS’s decision to strike down the lifetime bans is consistent with two other decisions since 2011 in which panels determined Olympic bans added to athletes’ sanctions are not valid because they go beyond what’s outlined in the world anti-doping code.

CAS heard testimony via video or teleconference from Richard McLaren, the Canadian lawyer who conducted the investigation into Russian doping, and Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Moscow lab director turned whistleblower.

Neither McLaren nor Rodchenkov had testified during the IOC hearings that led to sanctions, though Rodchenkov provided affidavits for the panel. The inability to question both men during those hearings raised questions about due process.

McLaren’s report, which was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and released in 2016, showed a system of sample tampering and the cover-up of positive tests that ran in Russia from 2011 to 2015.

During the Sochi Olympics, that included Rodchenkov swapping out urine samples through a hole in the wall in the Sochi lab with the Federal Security Service (FSB) opening the bottles, which were previously thought to be tamperproof.

The IOC commission chaired by Denis Oswald “is more than comfortably satisfied that the evidence establishes that a scheme of sample-swapping as described in the McLaren Report and the affidavit of Dr. Rodchenkov was indeed in place and implemented in Sochi.”

In the reasoned decisions released in some of the cases, the Oswald Commission said it found Rodchenkov to be a “truthful witness.”

In a statement, Jim Walden, Rodchenkov’s attorney, said, “Dr. Rodchenkov testified fully and credibly at CAS. His truth has been verified by forensic evidence, other whistleblowers, and, more recently, recovery of the Moscow lab’s secret database, showing thousands of dirty tests that were covered up.

"This panel’s unfortunate decision provides a very small measure of punishment for some athletes but a complete ‘get out of jail free card’ for most. Thus, the CAS decision only emboldens cheaters, makes it harder for clean athletes to win, and provides yet another ill-gotten gain for the corrupt Russian doping system generally, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin specifically.”