IOC Statement

The final notification of all remaining test results from the Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) delegation has been received from the Doping-Free Sport Unit (DFSU).

The IOC can confirm that all the remaining results are negative.

Therefore, as stated in the Executive Board decision of 25th February the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee is automatically lifted with immediate effect.

PyeongChang Olympians elect two new members to IOC Athletes’ Commission

Emma Terho from Finland (ice hockey) and Kikkan Randall from USA (cross-country skiing) have been elected to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Athletes’ Commission by their fellow Olympians at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.

With a record participation rate of 83.86 per cent, athletes at the Olympic Winter Games made their way to the voting booths in the Athlete365 Space in both the PyeongChang and Gangneung Olympic Villages to cast their votes. Terho was elected with 1,045 votes, followed by Randall with 831 votes.

For the full list of results, click here. 

The announcement was made today at the Olympic Village by IOC Executive Board Member and Chair of the Election Committee Nicole Hoevertsz, Swedish IOC Athletes’ Commission member Stefan Holm and IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell. 

Terho represented Finland at five Olympic Winter Games, winning bronze at Nagano 1998 and Vancouver 2010. Randall, meanwhile, is currently competing in her fifth Winter Games in PyeongChang. Earlier this week, she won the USA's first-ever Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing, after topping the podium in the team sprint event alongside Jessica Diggins.

Following approval by the IOC Session, to take place on the last day of the Games, Terho and Randall will become Commission and IOC Members for an eight-year term, representing their fellow Olympians on the IOC Athletes’ Commission, which serves as a link between the athletes and the IOC.

They will replace current IOC Athletes’ Commission Chair Angela Ruggiero and Adam Pengilly, whose terms are finishing following their election at the Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010.

All 2,930 athletes competing in PyeongChang were eligible to vote and had six candidates to choose from representing three continents and five different sports. They were asked to cast votes for two different athletes from two different sports. 

Prior to the start of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, Kirsty Coventry was appointed as the incoming Chair of the Athletes’ Commission following a vote of confidence from her fellow members.

Coventry has been a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission since 2012, and has played a significant role in developing the Commission’s new strategy, which was presented by the current Chair, Angela Ruggiero, at the International Athletes’ Forum last November.

Also confirmed recently was the appointment of Danka Bartekova as the Vice Chair of the Commission. Bartekova has been instrumental in the delivery of Athlete365, a new overarching brand that brings together all the IOC athlete-focused communication strands.

Visit: www.olympic.org/athlete365 to learn more

IOC President to convene "North and South Korean Olympic Participation Meeting"

The IOC President, Thomas Bach, today called for a meeting to decide on the participation of athletes from the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.  It follows the joint proposals (yesterday) by the governments of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In order to decide on the proposals, the IOC will convene a four-party meeting on Saturday 20 January 2018 at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.  The participants will be a delegation from the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee and delegations from the NOCs of the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, all led by their respective presidents, as well as high-ranking government officials and the IOC Members in both countries.  The meeting will be chaired by the IOC President.

The meeting will have to take a series of essential decisions, including the number and names of athletes and officials from the NOC of the DPRK, since all the deadlines for registration have already passed. The IOC will also have to decide on the format of such participation, including questions related to the official protocol (flag, anthem, ceremonies, uniform, etc.).

“I warmly welcome the joint proposals by the governments of the ROK and DPRK, which have been applauded by so many other governments worldwide. This is a great step forward in the Olympic spirit and in the spirit of the Olympic Truce Resolution passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Now the IOC must take the decisions to make this political commitment a reality,” said the IOC President.

###

The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, which means that every day the equivalent of 3.4 million US dollars goes to help athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.

IOC sanctions one Russian athlete, and closes one case as part of Oswald Commission findings

Today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published one new decision 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 Russian bobsledder Alexey VOEVODA, double gold medallist in Sochi 2014, has been sanctioned. The case opened against a second athlete has been closed without a sanction.

More hearings concerning other athletes will be held over the next few weeks.

To date, the number of cases opened by the Disciplinary Commission has reached 46 after additional findings from the re-analyses. Thirty-five of them have already 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.

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for this case of Mr Denis Oswald (Chairman), Mr Juan Antonio Samaranch and Mr Tony Estanguet, decided the following:

• Alexey VOEVODA is 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 is disqualified from the events in which he participated.

• In addition, he is 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 Russian team is disqualified from the two-man bobsleigh and four-man bobsleigh events, and the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation is requested to modify the results of the above-mentioned events accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.

The decision on Alexey VOEVODA is available here.

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

In addition to this decision, the IOC Disciplinary Commission has issued a third decision in which it found that the elements in the file and the conclusions of the investigations conducted so far were not sufficient to establish an anti-doping rule violation. Accordingly, the disciplinary proceedings opened against the athlete were terminated and the case filed. In order to protect the rights of the athlete, the identity of the athlete concerned will not be disclosed and the decision will not be published at this point in time.

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.

IOC suspends Russian NOC and creates a path for clean individual athletes to compete in PyeongChang 2018 under the Olympic Flag

The IOC Executive Board today studied and discussed the findings of the Commission led by the former President of Switzerland, Samuel Schmid, addressing the systematic manipulation of the anti-doping system in Russia. This report also addresses in particular the manipulation at the anti-doping laboratory at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014 which targeted the Olympic Games directly. Over 17 months of extensive work, the Schmid Commission gathered evidence and information and held hearings with all the main actors. Due process, to which every individual and every organisation is entitled, was followed. This opportunity was not available to the IOC prior to the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

The conclusions of the Schmid Report, on both factual and legal aspects, confirmed “the systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia, through the Disappearing Positive Methodology and during the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, as well as the various levels of administrative, legal and contractual responsibility, resulting from the failure to respect the respective obligations of the various entities involved”.

As a consequence, the Schmid Commission recommended to the IOC EB:

• "to take the appropriate measures that should be strong enough to effectively sanction the existence of a systemic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia, as well as the legal responsibility of the various entities involved (i.e., including uniform, flag and anthem);

• while protecting the rights of the individual Russian clean athletes; and

• to take into consideration the multiple costs incurred by the two IOC DCs, in particular those linked to the investigations, the various expertise and the re-analysis of the samples of the Olympic Games."

After discussing and approving the Schmid Report, the IOC EB took the following decision:

• To suspend the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) with immediate effect.

• To invite individual Russian athletes under strict conditions (see below) to the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. These invited athletes will participate, be it in individual or team competitions, under the name “Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR)”. They will compete with a uniform bearing this name and under the Olympic Flag. The Olympic Anthem will be played in any ceremony.

• Not to accredit any official from the Russian Ministry of Sport for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.

• To exclude the then Minister of Sport, Mr Vitaly Mutko, and his then Deputy Minister, Mr. Yuri Nagornykh, from any participation in all future Olympic Games.

• To withdraw Mr Dmitry Chernyshenko, the former CEO of the Organising Committee Sochi 2014, from the Coordination Commission Beijing 2022.

• To suspend ROC President Alexander Zhukov as an IOC Member, given that his membership is linked to his position as ROC President.

• The IOC reserves the right to take measures against and sanction other individuals implicated in the system.

• The ROC to reimburse the costs incurred by the IOC on the investigations and to contribute to the establishment of the Independent Testing Authority (ITA) for the total sum of USD 15 million, to build the capacity and integrity of the global anti-doping system.

• The IOC may partially or fully lift the suspension of the ROC from the commencement of the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 provided these decisions are fully respected and implemented by the ROC and by the invited athletes and officials.

• The IOC will issue operational guidelines for the implementation of these decisions.

How the athletes will be chosen:

To invite individual Russian athletes to the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 according to the following guidelines:

• The invitation list will be determined, at its absolute discretion, by a panel chaired by Valerie Fourneyron, Chair of the ITA. The panel will include members of the Pre-Games Testing Task Force: one appointed by WADA, one by the DFSU and one by the IOC, Dr Richard Budgett.

• This panel will be guided in its decisions by the following principles:

  The IOC, at its absolute discretion, will ultimately determine the athletes to be invited from the list.

  1. It can only consider athletes who have qualified according to the qualification standards of their respective sport.

  2. Athletes must be considered clean to the satisfaction of this panel:

     • Athletes must not have been disqualified or declared ineligible for any Anti-Doping Rule Violation.

     • Athletes must have undergone all the pre-Games targeted tests recommended by the Pre-Games Testing Task Force.

     • Athletes must have undergone any other testing requirements specified by the panel to ensure a level playing field.

  3. These invited athletes will participate, be it in individual or team competitions, in the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 under the name “Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR)”. They will compete with a uniform bearing this name and under the Olympic Flag. The Olympic Anthem will be played in any ceremony.

  4. These invited athletes will enjoy the same technical and logistical support as any other Olympic athlete.

  5. The panel, at its absolute discretion, will determine an invitation list for support staff and officials.

  6. This panel will be guided in its decisions by the following principles:

     • No member of the leadership of the Russian Olympic Team at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014 can be included on the invitation list.

     • No coach or medical doctor whose athlete has been found to have committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation can be included on the invitation list. All coaches and medical doctors included on the invitation list must sign a declaration to this effect.

     • Any other requirement considered necessary to protect the integrity of the Olympic Games.

  7. The IOC, at its absolute discretion, will ultimately determine the support staff and officials to be invited from the list.

IOC President Thomas Bach said: "This was an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport. The IOC EB, after following due process, has issued proportional sanctions for this systemic manipulation while protecting the clean athletes. This should draw a line under this damaging episode and serve as a catalyst for a more effective anti-doping system led by WADA."

He continued: "As an athlete myself, I feel very sorry for all the clean athletes from all NOCs who are suffering from this manipulation. Working with the IOC Athletes’ Commission, we will now look for opportunities to make up for the moments they have missed on the finish line or on the podium."

Decision of the IOC EB

Report of the Schmid Commission

IOC sanctions two athletes for failing anti-doping tests at London 2012

The protection of clean athletes and the fight against doping are top priorities for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as outlined in Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC's strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement.

Following the findings of the completed Independent Person Report in December 2016, the IOC has examined all samples collected from Russian athletes during the Olympic Games London 2012. These re-analyses and subsequent disciplinary hearings are now over.

As part of this process, the IOC today announced that two additional Russian athletes have been disqualified from the Olympic Games London 2012. The details follow.

Anna NAZAROVA, 31, of the Russian Federation, competing in the women's long jump event in which she ranked 5th and for which she was awarded a diploma, has been disqualified from the Olympic Games London 2012. Re-analysis of Nazarova's samples from London 2012 resulted in a positive test for the prohibited substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol).

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for this case of Mr Denis Oswald (Chairman), Mrs Gunilla Lindberg and Dr Ugur Erdener, decided the following:

1. The Athlete, Anna NAZAROVA:

   1. is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London in 2012 (presence, and/or use, of Prohibited Substances or its Metabolites or Markers in an athlete's bodily specimen),

   2. is disqualified from the event in which she participated upon the occasion of the Olympic Games London 2012, namely the women's long jump event, in which she ranked 5th and for which she was awarded a diploma,

   3. has the diploma obtained in the women's long jump event withdrawn and is ordered to return the same.

2. The IAAF is requested to modify the results of the above-mentioned event accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.

3. The Russian Olympic Committee shall ensure full implementation of this decision.

4. The Russian Olympic Committee shall notably secure the return to the IOC, as soon as possible, of the diploma awarded in connection with the women's long jump event to the Athlete.

5. This decision enters into force immediately.

The full decision is available here.

Yulia GUSHCHINA, 34, of the Russian Federation, competing in the women's 400m event in which she ranked 15th, and competing in the women's 4x400m relay event in which she ranked 2nd,, for which she and her teammates ranked 2nd and for which they were awarded a silver medal, has been disqualified from the Olympic Games London 2012. Re-analysis of Gushchina's samples from London 2012 resulted in a positive test for the prohibited substances dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol) and stanozolol.

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for this case of Mr Denis Oswald (Chairman), Mrs Gunilla Lindberg and Dr Ugur Erdener, decided the following:

1. The Athlete, Yulia GUSHCHINA:

   1. is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London in 2012 (presence and/or use, of a Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers in an athlete's bodily specimen),

   2. is disqualified from the events in which she participated upon the occasion of the Olympic Games London 2012, in particular the women's 400m event and the women's 4x400m relay event;

2. The IAAF is requested to modify the results of the women's 400m (1) accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.

3. The Russian Olympic Committee shall ensure full implementation of this decision (2).

The full decision is available here.

Out of the 226 samples collected from Russian athletes who participated to the Olympic Games London 2012 that were re-analysed, 21 sanctions have been issued by the disciplinary commission.

The IOC's re-analysis programme for London 2012 samples is ongoing.

To date, 584 samples from athletes who participated in the Olympic Games London 2012 (including Russian athletes) have been re-analysed and 49 Anti-Doping Rule violations were found.

One of them is Nevin YAVIT (TUR), who participated in the women's 100m hurdles event at the Olympic Games London 2012, in which she ranked 5th and for which she was awarded a diploma. The result of the re-analysis of the A sample constitutes an Adverse Analytical Finding as it showed the presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolites or marker.

The IOC was informed of the decision made with regard to the application of the IAAF Anti-Doping Regulation, according to which all the athlete's results from 28 June 2012 to the start of a four-year ineligibility period were annulled, and therefore decided to not proceed further with the case.

In applying Art. 15.1 of the World Anti-Doping Code, the IOC has recognised this above decision and acknowledged the fact that the results obtained by the athlete at the Olympic Games London 2012 had already been annulled.

The annulment consequently leads to the correction of the results and the return of the diploma. The IAAF has already corrected the results accordingly.

In order to complete the implementation of the consequences of the annulment, the athlete has been requested to return immediately to the IOC or to the Turkish Olympic Committee the diploma awarded to her in connection with the above-mentioned Olympic event.

The Turkish Olympic Committee has been required to assist the IOC in securing the implementation of the above.

For further details, please consult the following factsheet.

(1) The results of the relay event have already been modified as a result of the decision issued in the matter of Ms Antonina KRIVOSHAPKA.

(2) The consequences of the disqualification of the team results shall be implemented based on the decision issued in the matter of Ms Antonina KRIVOSHAPKA.

IOC sanctions three Russian athletes as part of Oswald Commission findings

Today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published 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, three Russian bobsledders, Aleksandr KAS’YANOV, Aleksei PUSHKAREV and IIvir KHUZIN, have been sanctioned.

More hearings concerning other athletes will be held over the next few weeks.

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for these three cases of Mr Denis Oswald (Chairman), Mr Juan Antonio Samaranch and Mr Tony Estanguet, decided the following:

Aleksandr KAS’YANOV, Aleksei PUSHKAREV and IIvir KHUZIN 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 four 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 full decision on Aleksandr KAS’YANOV is available here.

• The full decision on Aleksei PUSHKAREV is available here.

• The full decision on IIvir KHUZIN is available here.

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

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 Disciplinary 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 Disciplinary Commission and the Inquiry Commissions, following the publication of the McLaren report. The IOC took this extra measure since Prof. McLaren did not have the authority to bring forward Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) cases against individual athletes.

After receiving the results from the final McLaren report in December 2016, the IOC opened proceedings against the 28 Russian athletes mentioned in the report, which are now being heard by the Oswald Commission.

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.

The decision with regard to the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 will be taken by the IOC Executive Board in December based on the findings of the IOC Disciplinary Commission chaired by Samuel Schmid, a former President of Switzerland.

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