Special Commission of the International Olympic Committee under guidance of Former Sports Minister of France and Head of Independent Organization of Anti-Doping Testing Valerie Fourneyron refused to invite 15 Russians earlier justified by Court of Arbitration for Sports to take part in the Olympics in PyeongChang, as per TASS.
“The decision was based on recommendations of the commission processing applications. After the fundamental analysis conducted by the commission, its members mentioned additional elements and\or evidence which were omitted by the International Olympic Committee headed by Denis Oswald due to the absence of the access to the data. Additional information included data of Laboratory Information Management System of Moscow Anti-Doping laboratory, traces of the forbidden substances, evidence of manipulations, etc. Besides, commission agreed that the CAS decision did not exclude suspicions of doping usage, having provided insufficient evidence to the commission that 13 sportsmen under question were clean”, the IOC claimed.
It is stated that the International Olympic Committee has made the decision on Russian sportsmen and coaches’ case unanimously. The role of the commission is not just discovery of anti-doping rules’ infringement but confirmation of innocence of athletes who applied to come to the Olympics. However, CAS has not just disclosed the grounds for its decision on satisfying the appeals of 28 Russians, that is why the sportsmen mentioned above did not get invitations for the Olympics. The sportsmen were banned on the basis of investigation of the International Olympic Committee headed by Denis Oswald. The Commission was dealing with double checking doping tests of the 2014-Olympics in Sochi. It was reported earlier that in case of the positive decision of CAS, the indicated sportsmen would be able to enter the list of the Olympic Games’ participants in PyeongChang to be held from 9 until 25 of February.
It is worth mentioning though, that appeals by Russian athletes with regard to the decision of the International Olympic Committee about lifetime bans from the Olympic Games have been satisfied. Court has determined that the results of Russian athletes at 2014 Games should be restored due to the absence of the factual anti-doping rules’ violation.
According to female speed skating team coach Pavel Abratkevich, they didn't expect anything else. Even athletes that didn't participate in Sochi Olympics were banned from Winter Olympics by IOC. Speed skater Alexander Rumiantsev commented that he's surprised that IOC didn't agree with court decision. "They've told lies about us and didn't even care to apologise," he added. The athlete is sure that Russian athletes have to continue defend a good name in court.
Russkiy Mir
