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IOC sanctions 11 Russian athletes as part of Oswald Commission findings

23/12/2017

 

International Olympic Committee Press Release

 
 
 
December 22, 2017

IOC sanctions 11 Russian athletes as part of Oswald Commission findings

Today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published 11 new decisions from the Oswald Commission hearings, which are being conducted in the context of the Sochi 2014 forensic and analytic doping investigations.

As a result, the following Russian athletes have been sanctioned:

- Speed skaters Ivan SKOBREV and Artem KUZNETCOV

- Lugers Tatyana IVANOVA and Albert DEMCHENKO, silver medallists in Sochi 2014

- Cross-country skiers Nikita KRYUKOV, Alexander BESSMERTNYKH and Natalia MATVEEVA

- Bobsledders Liudmila UDOBKINA and Maxim BELUGIN

- Ice hockey players Tatiana BURINA and Anna SHCHUKINA

To date, the number of cases opened by the Disciplinary Commission has reached 46 after additional findings from the re-analyses. All 46 of them have been handled, of which three have been filed. As some investigations are still ongoing (notably the forensic analysis of the bottles), it cannot be excluded that there might be new elements that would justify opening further new cases and holding more hearings.

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for these 11 cases of Mr Denis Oswald (Chairman), Mrs Gunilla Lindberg and Mr Patrick Baumann, decided the following:

Maxim BELUGIN, Alexander BESSMERTNYKH, Tatiana BURINA, Albert DEMCHENKO, Tatyana IVANOVA, Nikita KRYUKOV, Artem KUZNETCOV, Natalia MATVEEVA, Anna SHCHUKINA, Ivan SKOBREV, and Liudmila UDOBKINA are found to have committed anti-doping rule violations pursuant to Article 2 of The International Olympic Committee Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, in 2014, and are disqualified from the events in which they participated.

In addition, the 11 athletes are declared ineligible to be accredited in any capacity for all editions of the Games of the Olympiad and the Olympic Winter Games subsequent to the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014.

The reasoning for these decisions will be communicated in due course.

For further details, please consult the following factsheet.

The Disciplinary Commission, chaired by IOC Member Denis Oswald, is responsible for investigating the alleged doping violations by individual Russian athletes. Therefore, all the samples collected from Russian athletes at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014 that were available to the IOC were re-analysed. This had two goals: to further review the samples for evidence of doping, and separately to determine if the samples themselves or the bottles were manipulated or tampered with.

Due to the nature and complexity of the cases, this thorough, comprehensive and time-consuming process has taken several months and had to involve external forensic experts, who had to develop a legally-defendable methodology for all the cases under the jurisdiction of the Oswald Commission. Due process has to be followed, and re-analysis is still underway.

The IOC showed its determination to protect clean athletes from the very beginning of the case, in July 2016, by immediately establishing the Oswald Commission and the Schmid Commission, following the publication of the McLaren report. The IOC took this extra measure as Prof. McLaren did not have the authority to bring forward Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) cases against individual athletes.

The Oswald Commission has announced that all hearings for active athletes who could qualify for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 will be completed shortly. In accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code, confidentiality has to be respected in the interests of the athletes concerned. The purpose of this work is to ensure that the International Federations (IFs) have the necessary tools to protect the qualification competitions. The outcome of the hearings will be announced as soon as possible after each individual hearing. This will allow the IFs to follow up with their own disciplinary hearings immediately, and to take the athletes concerned out of the qualification system as soon as possible.

On 5 December, the IOC Executive Board suspended the Russian NOC and created a path for clean individual athletes to compete in PyeongChang 2018 under the Olympic flag.

Click here for more information about the IOC Disciplinary commissions and the Sochi 2014 forensic and analytic investigations.

International Olympic Committee Press Release

View this press release online
 
 
December 22, 2017

IOC sanctions 11 Russian athletes as part of Oswald Commission findings

Today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published 11 new decisions from the Oswald Commission hearings, which are being conducted in the context of the Sochi 2014 forensic and analytic doping investigations.

As a result, the following Russian athletes have been sanctioned:

- Speed skaters Ivan SKOBREV and Artem KUZNETCOV

- Lugers Tatyana IVANOVA and Albert DEMCHENKO, silver medallists in Sochi 2014

- Cross-country skiers Nikita KRYUKOV, Alexander BESSMERTNYKH and Natalia MATVEEVA

- Bobsledders Liudmila UDOBKINA and Maxim BELUGIN

- Ice hockey players Tatiana BURINA and Anna SHCHUKINA

To date, the number of cases opened by the Disciplinary Commission has reached 46 after additional findings from the re-analyses. All 46 of them have been handled, of which three have been filed. As some investigations are still ongoing (notably the forensic analysis of the bottles), it cannot be excluded that there might be new elements that would justify opening further new cases and holding more hearings.

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for these 11 cases of Mr Denis Oswald (Chairman), Mrs Gunilla Lindberg and Mr Patrick Baumann, decided the following:

Maxim BELUGIN, Alexander BESSMERTNYKH, Tatiana BURINA, Albert DEMCHENKO, Tatyana IVANOVA, Nikita KRYUKOV, Artem KUZNETCOV, Natalia MATVEEVA, Anna SHCHUKINA, Ivan SKOBREV, and Liudmila UDOBKINA are found to have committed anti-doping rule violations pursuant to Article 2 of The International Olympic Committee Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, in 2014, and are disqualified from the events in which they participated.

In addition, the 11 athletes are declared ineligible to be accredited in any capacity for all editions of the Games of the Olympiad and the Olympic Winter Games subsequent to the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014.

The reasoning for these decisions will be communicated in due course.

For further details, please consult the following factsheet.

The Disciplinary Commission, chaired by IOC Member Denis Oswald, is responsible for investigating the alleged doping violations by individual Russian athletes. Therefore, all the samples collected from Russian athletes at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014 that were available to the IOC were re-analysed. This had two goals: to further review the samples for evidence of doping, and separately to determine if the samples themselves or the bottles were manipulated or tampered with.

Due to the nature and complexity of the cases, this thorough, comprehensive and time-consuming process has taken several months and had to involve external forensic experts, who had to develop a legally-defendable methodology for all the cases under the jurisdiction of the Oswald Commission. Due process has to be followed, and re-analysis is still underway.

The IOC showed its determination to protect clean athletes from the very beginning of the case, in July 2016, by immediately establishing the Oswald Commission and the Schmid Commission, following the publication of the McLaren report. The IOC took this extra measure as Prof. McLaren did not have the authority to bring forward Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) cases against individual athletes.

The Oswald Commission has announced that all hearings for active athletes who could qualify for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 will be completed shortly. In accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code, confidentiality has to be respected in the interests of the athletes concerned. The purpose of this work is to ensure that the International Federations (IFs) have the necessary tools to protect the qualification competitions. The outcome of the hearings will be announced as soon as possible after each individual hearing. This will allow the IFs to follow up with their own disciplinary hearings immediately, and to take the athletes concerned out of the qualification system as soon as possible.

On 5 December, the IOC Executive Board suspended the Russian NOC and created a path for clean individual athletes to compete in PyeongChang 2018 under the Olympic flag.

Click here for more information about the IOC Disciplinary commissions and the Sochi 2014 forensic and analytic investigations.

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