A ban of Russia’s top skeleton athletes has been lifted due to a lack of evidence from a recent World Anti-Doping Agency-commissioned report on widespread Russian doping.
On Dec. 30, Russia’s two Sochi Olympic skeleton medalists, including gold medalist Aleksandr Tretiyakov, were among four Russian sliders provisionally suspended through Jan. 19 in response to the investigation into Russian doping at the Sochi Winter Games.
The four skeleton athletes appealed the ban and had a hearing in front of a panel last Tuesday.
On Sunday, the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation said the panel ruled that the WADA-commissioned Russian doping report “provides sufficient reason to conduct further investigation by both the IOC and the IBSF into the role of the athletes in ‘tampering or attempted tampering of any doping control’ … but at the same time it comes to the conclusion that at this very moment there is not (yet) sufficient evidence against the athletes that would justify the provisional suspension.”
In the five days between the hearing and the bans being lifted, the Russian sliders were forced to miss a World Cup stop in Altenberg, Germany.
They are able to compete at next weekend’s World Cup in Winterberg, Germany, which doubles as the European Championships.
Tretiyakov, Sochi women’s bronze medalist Yelena Nikitina and fellow Sochi Olympians Maria Orlova and Olga Potylitsina were all suspended. They made up two-thirds of the Russian Olympic skeleton team in Sochi but have not received sanctions regarding their 2014 Olympic results.
At least 10 Russian Olympians from Sochi were provisionally suspended since the second part of a WADA-commissioned report into Russian doping violations in Sochi was published Dec. 9.
The other six suspended Sochi Olympians known so far were cross-country skiers, including Russia’s top two skiers from those Winter Games.
Two Russian biathletes were also suspended in connection to the WADA-commissioned report. Though their names haven’t been announced by national or international governing bodies, Russian and Italian media have said they were Sochi Olympians.
The skiers and biathletes, like the skeleton sliders, have not received sanctions regarding their Olympic results.
On Dec. 23, the IOC said it opened disciplinary proceedings against 28 Russian Olympians for whom there was “evidence of manipulation of one or more of their urine samples” from the Sochi Winter Games.
The IOC move was in response to the WADA-commissioned report by Richard McLaren that said more than 1,000 Russian athletes were involved in organized doping. Russians who won 15 medals in Sochi had their samples tampered with, according to the report.
This year’s world skeleton championships are in Koenigssee, Germany, in February, after they were moved from Sochi after the McLaren report was published.
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