Russia wins Olympics in Sochi once again

The verdict by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) returned the Russian national team to first place in the unofficial team classification of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

If the CAS decision is confirmed, the Russian team’s medal tally will come to 11 gold, 9 silver and 9 bronze medals. While Norway will be second in the unofficial medal count (11-5-10, with 26 medals). 

Russia’s sports minister Pavel Kolobkov said that the country will ask the International Olympic Committee to allow Russian athletes whose doping bans have been overturned to participate in the upcoming winter games in Pyeongchang.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on the Russian athletes, said that the country will continue standing up for their rights in courts.

"We have stated many times that certainly, we will continue supporting our athletes through all possible channels in any steps aimed at defending their rights," the spokesman noted.

The member of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that justice has finally prevailed at least with respect to some Russian athletes. "Finally, the court considered the arguments that there is no substantial evidence proving that our Olympic athletes used any doping, and made the right decision. The IOC reserves the right to challenge the court's decision, its representatives have already said that they will appeal to the federal court in Switzerland, although this court must also make the right decision in the absence of evidence," she said, adding that, despite the CAS verdict, the IOC may not let these Russians to the Olympics in Pyeongchang.

"Unfortunately, those completely justified athletes, who in the right shape to perform in Korea have very little chance of this. I think they will not receive an individual invitation to the Olympic Games, because on 5 December the IOC retained the right to personally allow or deny Russians to take part in the Olympics. Nevertheless, I am glad that our winners were returned medals, it is a very good precedent, which shows that it is necessary to fight to the end," Tatyana Lebedeva stressed.

Today, the CAS upheld the appeals of 28 Russian athletes, who had been earlier banned for life by the IOC from participating in the Olympic Games over charges of abuse of anti-doping rules at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. The court also partially upheld appeals of 11 Russian athletes, replacing a life ban from all Olympic Games with a ban on participating only in the PyeongChang Game.