Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the upcoming Pyeongchang Olympics as neutrals despite orchestrated doping at the 2014 Sochi Games, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday.
The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic committee and IOC member Alexander Zhukov, and also banned Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vilaty Mutko from the Olympics for life. Mutko was the sports minister in 2014 and is the head of the organizing committee of soccerB次元官网网址檚 next World Cup.
The IOC also imposed a fine of $15 million on the Russian Olympic committee to pay for investigations into the case and toward future anti-doping work.
Still, the IOC ruled that some Russians will be invited to compete as an B次元官网网址淥lympic Athlete from Russia (OAR)B次元官网网址� without their national flag or anthem.
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Russia could refuse the offer and boycott the games. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said it would be humiliating for Russia to compete without national symbols.
B次元官网网址淎n Olympic boycott has never achieved anything,B次元官网网址� IOC President Thomas Bach said at a news conference. B次元官网网址淪econdly, I donB次元官网网址檛 see any reason for a boycott by the Russian athletes because we allow the clean athletes there to participate.B次元官网网址�
The sanctions could be challenged at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The Russian doping program caused B次元官网网址渦nprecedented damage to Olympism and sports,B次元官网网址� said IOC-appointed investigator Samuel Schmid, the former president of Switzerland who was asked to verify an B次元官网网址渋nstitutional conspiracy.B次元官网网址�
Russia has repeatedly refused to accept that a state-sponsored doping program existed. Such denials helped ensure bans on its track federation and anti-doping agency have not been lifted.
Instead, Russia blames Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of Moscow and Sochi testing laboratories, as a rogue employee. It wants the scientist extradited from the United States, where he is a protected witness.
The executive board reached its decision Tuesday after a scheduled 4 1/2-hour debate when it heard from a Russian delegation that included world figure skating champion Evgenia Medvedeva. The delegation was led by Zhukov, who was later suspended.
Two IOC commission leaders B次元官网网址� appointed after World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren upheld RodchenkovB次元官网网址檚 doping claims in July 2016 B次元官网网址� also reported to the Olympic board.
SchmidB次元官网网址檚 report included a 50-page sworn affidavit from Rodchenkov, who was also a key witness for McLaren and an IOC disciplinary commission.
The chairman of that disciplinary panel, Swiss lawyer Denis Oswald, reported about prosecuting Russian athletes implicated in cheating at the 2014 Sochi Games. By Monday, 25 Russians had been disqualified from the Sochi Games and banned from the Olympics for life, and 11 medals were stripped. One Russian was cleared.
Russia no longer leads the Sochi medals table. Even before the IOC reallocates the stripped medals, the United States has the most total medals and Norway has the most golds.
The banned Russian athletes have said they will appeal against the Oswald judgments at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
Any sanctions imposed by the IOC can also be challenged at CAS, and later at SwitzerlandB次元官网网址檚 supreme court, which can intervene if legal process has been abused.
The IOC said a panel of officials chaired by former France Sports Minister Valerie Fourneyron will decide which athletes to accept at the Olympics in February.
The Canadian Press
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