Do not get one by one

The visiting panel of the sports arbitration court (CAS) in Pyeongchang rejected the appeal of 45 Russian athletes and two coaches to remove them by the International Olympic Committee from the 2018 Games. This was reported on the court website.

CAS judges concluded that the IOC decision on the procedure for invitations of Russian athletes to the Olympics "cannot be considered as a option of sanctions." It was accepted "to achieve the balance between the interest of the IOC in the global struggle with doping and the interests of individual athletes from Russia," the court decision notes.

"The plaintiffs did not prove that the method that two special commissions, the invitation group (IRP) and the Impan of Olympic athletes from Russia (OAR IG) (OAR IG) were evaluated by the applicants, were carried out by discriminatory, arbitrary or unscrupulous way," CAS emphasized.

IOC approved the court decision. "We welcome this decision as supporting the fight against doping and for the purity of all athletes," the IOC statement said.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said the court decided under pressure from the IOC. “CAS is difficult to make decisions against the background of the previous pressure. If now they would have been made,” the official said . “We will study possible steps, no one will leave it. Now the games have begun, there is a“ Olympic truce. ”CAS is predictable and understandable, because they considered the question - whether the procedure for inviting the game was violated, but upsetting.”

According to Mutko, the IOC procedure is "opaque, contradictory, does not add authority to its authors, the illusion is created that this is a private party, and there are a lot of admission criteria for it." At the same time, CAS considered not the essence of the issue, but whether the procedure was violated, therefore, "no one could expect another solution."

On the eve of the CAS panel refused to consider the appeals of six Russian athletes for removal from the 2018 Olympics. They were convicted of violation of anti -doping rules, but left for disqualification. The court found that this issue is beyond its jurisdiction. For the same reason, the appeals of the seven Russians who are not admitted to Pyeongchang - sports doctors, coaches and other accompanying persons are rejected.

On February 1, CAS canceled lifelong disqualification of 39 Russian athletes previously convicted of doping. 11 to Russians were replaced by a ban on participating only in the nearest Olympics, and from the remaining 28 accusations of doping was completely removed for unprovenness. After that, the justified athletes sent requests to the IOC to receive invitations to the 2018 Olympics.

On Sunday, IOC President Thomas Bach pointed out the need to reform CAS , in particular his control system. He made such a statement precisely in connection with the decision of the court on the appeal of Russians. The decision made, said the President of the IOC, "will adversely affect the fight against doping in the future." Then Bach warned, "that the lack of sanctions by CAS does not mean that these athletes will have the right to receive an invitation from the IOC."

On Monday, the IOC refused to admit games in Pyeongchang 15 to Russians, from which CAS removed the accusations of doping. The IRP decision, which affected 13 existing athletes and two more who have completed their careers and now work as coaches, was adopted unanimously. The head of the IOC commission to investigate the use of doping Denis Oswald noted that the CAS decision to justify the Russians was "shocking", and he "does not understand it", since it is not familiar with motives.