Pyeongchang: Forty-seven Russians implicated in doping lost Friday a last-minute court bid to take part in the Winter Olympics, just hours before the opening ceremony.
The applicants, who included Korean-born speed skater Victor An, had asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn an IOC decision not to invite them to South Korea.
The applications filed by Russian athletes and coaches have been dismissed,” CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb told a packed news conference.
The IOC was swift to welcome the decision, the latest twist in the Russian doping scandal. It said the ruling ‘supports the fight against doping and brings clarity for all athletes’.
Fifteen of those who lost their bids Friday were among a group of 28 who controversially had life bans from the Olympics overturned last week by CAS, which cited insufficient evidence.
The other 32, including An, biathlon gold medallist Anton Shipulin and Sergei Ustyugov, a cross-country skiing World Champion, were also omitted from the list of Russians invited to Pyeongchang.
“In its decisions, the CAS arbitrators have considered that the process created by the IOC to establish an invitation list of Russian athletes to compete as Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) could not be described as a sanction but rather as an eligibility decision,” Reeb said.
However, the CAS decision may not be the end of the matter. A source close to the IOC told this agency that the 47 Russians have also lodged a case with a Swiss civil court in Lausanne.
Russian minister criticises IOC, CAS
Moscow: Russia said Friday the CAS was under pressure from Olympic officials when it rejected a last-minute bid from 47 Russian athletes to take part in the Pyeongchang Winter Games. “It’s difficult for CAS to make decisions against the backdrop of an earlier pressure,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko told ‘Interfax news agency’, referring to objections from the IOC. He added that if the Russian athletes implicated in doping had been allowed to take part in the Games now ‘it would have caused shock’. “IOC had in place opaque, controversial procedures to decide who attends the Games and who does not,” Mukto further stated.
Samsung in a spot over WG phone fiasco
Tehran: Iran said Friday that their athletes had refused to accept special Samsung mobile telephones issued for the Winter Games (WG) in South Korea until they received an apology for initially being refused them.
Games organisers had refused Wednesday to give athletes from Iran and North Korea the Galaxy Note 8 devices from sponsor Samsung, loaded with essential logistical and competition information, due to international sanctions.
Although they backtracked the following day, the incident caused a storm in Iran where Samsung has a major presence.
“Our athletes refused to accept the mobiles and handed in a letter of protest to the Olympic Committee and are awaiting the official and written response,” Hassan Taherian, Iran’s ambassador to South Korea, told the official ‘IRNA news agency’.
IRNA reported that telecoms minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi was looking into the issue, and was considering whether to block imports of Samsung phones.
Shahrokh Shahnazi, secretary-general of Iran’s National Olympic Committee, told the same agency: “Samsung company and anyone involved in disrespecting Iranian athletes participating in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics must apologise to Iran’s team, and the Islamic republic of Iran will not compromise on this issue.”
agence france-presse
