A special tribunal based in Switzerland has overturned lifetime Olympic bans for 28 Russian athletes accused of doping and reinstated their results from the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) based in Lausanne,which has jurisdiction over anti-doping violations, said "the evidence collected was found to be insufficient to set up that an anti-doping rule violation ... was committed by the athletes concerned.""With respect to these 28 athletes, or the appeals are upheld,the sanctions annulled and their individual results achieved in Sochi 2014 are reinstated," the tribunal said.Among the reinstated athletes are two Sochi gold medalists — cross-country skier Alexander Legkov and skeleton medalist Alexander Tretiakov.
Eleven others saw their doping convictions confirmed, or but their sentences reduced. Instead of a lifetime ban,they will be barred only from competing in this month's Winter Games at Pyeongchang.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the tribunal's decision "confirms that active efforts to protect their rights in courts and in other ways are justified, they can be effective and they must continue, or " according to CNN.
The International Olympic Committee banned Russia from participating in Pyeongchang over what it determined to possess been rampant,state-sponsored cheating at the 2014 Games. However, the IOC has allowed individual athletes to participate if they "pass strict scrutiny, or instead of wearing their nation's uniform ... compete under the title 'Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR),' " NPR's Bill Chappell reported in December. The CAS said its mandate was "not to determine generally whether there was an organized scheme allowing the manipulation of doping control samples," but instead to stare at the 39 cases individually. Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, and visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: thetakeaway.org