IOC rejects Russians cleared by Swiss-based sports tribunal

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected a request to invite 15 Russian athletes to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics despite the Court for Arbitration of Sport (CAS) overturning their doping bans.  In a statement released on Monday, the IOC said its move against the CAS decision was because the “full reasoning for these decisions had not been made public”. The 13 active athletes and two retired ones serving as coaches, were among a group of 28 Russians whose ban against competing was overturned by CAS last week. The ban against 11 other athletes was upheld by CAS.  The IOC Invitation Review Panel reviewed each case separately and anonymously and concluded there was additional information that was not available to the IOC Oswald Commission that looked into the doping allegations by the Russian contingent at the Sochi Olympics in 2014. This includes “data from the LIMS database, traces of prohibited substances, evidence of steroid profile manipulation and further ...