Olympic doping ban on 28 Russian athletes lifted

Lifetime Olympic ban for doping violations at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games on twenty-eight Russian athletes was lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport [Cas] on Thursday.

The ruling means that the athletes' results at the 2014 Olympics have also been reinstated.

Meanwhile, suspensions on 11 other players have been partially upheld, which means they will only miss the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang beginning on February 9, reports the New York Times.

"In 28 cases, the evidence collected was found to be insufficient to establish that an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) was committed by the athletes concerned", an official statement from the sports court read.

The statement further said that the court has unanimously found that the evidence put forward by the IOC in the doping matter did not have the same weight in each individual case.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had last year banned 43 Russians over doping offenses at the Sochi Olympics.