"Based on the recommendation of the invitation review panel, the Olympic Athlete from Russia Implementation Group (OAR IG) has met to discuss the request by the suspended Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to invite 13 more athletes and two more coaches to the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018," the statement reads. "To give further assurance that all information available to the Panel had been analyzed and assessed, the Panel reviewed all 13 athletes submitted by the suspended ROC for OAR invitation places using the same methodology as its initial review of 16 and 17 January 2018 · on a case-by-case basis, individually and anonymously," TASS cited the document as saying.
"Following the detailed analysis conducted by the Panel, its members observed that there were additional elements and/or evidence, which could not be considered by the IOC Oswald Commission because it was not available to it, that raised suspicion about the integrity of these athletes. The additional information included data from the LIMS database, traces of prohibited substances, evidence of steroid profile manipulation and further confidential information provided to the Panel by WADA. In addition, the Panel agreed that the decision of the CAS had not lifted the suspicion of doping or given the Panel sufficient confidence to recommend to the OAR IG that those 13 athletes could be considered as clean," the statement says.
CAS earlier upheld appeals filed by 28 Russian athletes who had received life Olympic bans over alleged doping violations at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Following the decision, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) requested the IOC to invite 13 Russian athletes and two coaches to the PyeongChang Olympic Games. Among them were skeleton racers Maria Orlova, Aleksandr Tretyakov and Elena Nikitina, cross-country skiers Alexander Legkov, Evgeniy Belov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Alexander Bessmertnykh, Natalia Matveeva and Yevgeniya Shapovalova, speed skaters Olga Fatkulina and Alexander Rumyantsev, luger Tatiana Ivanova, as well as coaches Albert Demchenko and Sergei Chudinov.
More about: Olympic-Games
