Court rejects appeals from Russian athletes barred for 2018 Games

Appeals by six Russian athletes against their barring from next week's Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang have been dismissed by the Swiss Civil Courts, the Insidethegames portal said on Saturday referring to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The collective appeal was filed by speed skaters Denis Yuskov and Pavel Kulizhnikov, ski jumper Dmitry Vasiliev, biathlete Irina Starykh, Alexander Loginov and short-track speed skater Tatyana Borodulina, reports Tass news agency.

They argued at the court the IOC's criterion against allowing them to the Games, which the Committee used exclusively to Russian athletes -- a lack of doping history in career.

The Russian athletes had been proved to breach doping violations, but their disqualifying had expired.

"Yes I can confirm that this is the case," an IOC spokesperson told insidethegames today when asked about whether the Swiss Court appeals had been rejected," the portal reports.

On December 5, the IOC Executive Board announced its decision to suspend the entire Russian national team from taking part in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea's PyeongChang over multiple doping abuse allegations.

The International Olympic Committee, however, stated that doping-free athletes from Russia might go to the 2018 Olympic Games under the classification of neutral athletes, or the OAR status, which stands for 'Olympic Athlete from Russia.'

On Saturday, Head of IOC's Communications Department Mark Adams announced the commission led by Valerie Fourneyron would consider inviting another 13 Russian athletes.

On February 1, CAS ruled to uphold the appeals of 28 Russian athletes whom the International Olympic Committee earlier banned for life from participating in the Olympic Games over accusations of breaching 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 Games.

The IOC admitted 168 Russian athletes to the Games. They will compete under the Olympic flag as "Olympic athletes from Russia".

IOC earlier announced it would not invite some leading Russian athletes to the Olympics, among who are short-track skater Viktor Ahn, biathlete Anton Shipulin, skier Sergei Ustyugov, speed skaters Pavel Kulizhnikov and Denis Yuskov, and figure skaters Ksenia Stolbova and Ivan Bukin.

The upcoming 23rd Winter Olympic Games, will take place in South Korea's PyeongChang on February 9-25, 2018.

--IANS

sam/vm