Twenty-eight Russian athletes have had their Olympic doping ban overturned, throwing the International Olympic Committee's policy on Russian doping into turmoil, Sky Sports reports. According to the report, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Thursday that available evidence was 'insufficient ' to support claim that the 28 athletes had broken anti-doping rules at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
The Court of Arbitration for Sports in its ruling said it "unanimously found that the evidence put forward by the IOC in relation to this matter did not have the same weight in each individual case. In 28 cases, the evidence collected was found to be insufficient to establish that an anti-doping rule violation was committed by the athletes concerned."
Before the ban was overturned, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had invited 169 Russians to the Pyeongchang Olympics under a neutral flag, but may now be forced to allow in athletes it deems dopers, eight days before the Games begin.
Meanwhile, it is not immediately clear how many of the 28 athletes would now seek to participate in the Olympics as some of them have retired from competitive sports.
Recall that Sky Sports had reported that the IOC last year banned 43 Russians over doping offences at the Sochi Olympics, ruling they had been part of a scheme to dope. The Russian director of the laboratory which handled samples for the Sochi Games, Grigory Rodchenkov, said he gave cocktails of banned steroids to athletes and swapped tainted samples for clean urine on orders from Russian state sports officials.
The Russian government vehemently denies ever supporting doping. Three more appeals, all involving retired biathlon competitors, will be heard later.
