‘Evidence Was Insufficient’: 28 Russians Have Olympic Doping Bans Lifted
The Olympic doping ban of 28 Russian athletes was overturned, sport’s highest tribunal announced Thursday, just over a week before the start of the Winter Games in South Korea.
Keep on reading to know more.
Source: AFP
‘Evidence was insufficient’
Twenty-eight Russian athletes had their Olympic doping bans overturned on Thursday, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that evidence that these sportsmen were using doping was “insufficient”.
The ruling means that their 2014 results are reinstated and they could now seek to participate in the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, which open on February 9.
Eleven more were ruled to have been guilty of doping but had lifetime bans cut to a ban from the PyeongChang Games alone.
CAS said it “unanimously found that the evidence put forward by the IOC in relation to this matter did not have the same weight in each individual case. In 28 cases, the evidence collected was found to be insufficient to establish that an anti-doping rule violation was committed by the athletes concerned.”
Among the reinstated athletes were cross-country ski gold medalist Alexander Legkov and skeleton gold medalist Alexander Tretiakov.
“It’s a big victory for them and I’m relieved that justice has finally been done,” said Philippe Baertsch, a lawyer for the athletes, told the Associated Press, said of the 28 who were cleared. “This confirms what they’ve been saying since day one, namely that they are and they’ve always been clean athletes, and that they were wrongly sanctioned without any evidence.”
The IOC last year banned 43 Russians over doping offenses at the Sochi Olympics.
See also:
- North Korea Going to Winter Olympics 2018: First Scandal + Cool Photos and Video
- Russian New International Ban: Winter Olympic Games 2018 and a Lot of Doping
- 6 Beautiful Places to Visit in South Korea While Olympics 2018
