IOC: Invitations to Games for Russian athletes, cleared by CAS, due within two days

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) takes two days to decide whether Russia’s 13 athletes and two coaches, whose appeals were upheld at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), will participate in the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang, IOC’s President Thomas Bach told a news conference on Sunday.

The CAS on Thursday ruled to uphold the appeals of 28 Russian athletes who the IOC had earlier banned for life from participating in the Olympic Games over accusations of breaching anti-doping rules at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

The athletes came under the IOC’s ban following a probe by the IOC commission under Denis Oswald, which retested the doping samples from the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. The sanctions against them were annulled and their individual results achieved in Sochi in 2014 were reinstated.

Though IOC has not received the motivation from the Court, a final decision on the Russian athletes may be announced within two days, Bach told reporters on Sunday.