Lausanne (AFP)

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday lifted the life suspensions of three Russian biathletes for doping during the Sochi-2014 Olympics, inflicting a new snub to the IOC in this resounding scandal involving Moscow.

The Lausanne-based court completely canceled the sanctions against Yana Romanova and Olga Vilukhina, restoring the latter her individual silver medal in the 7.5 km sprint event, due to evidence deemed insufficient.

On the other hand, she maintained the conviction of Olga Zaytseva for "use of a prohibited substance", considering that she had indeed substituted her vial of urine, but reduced the duration of her suspension: instead of being banned life of the Olympics, his sidelining only concerns the 2018 edition already organized in Pyeongchang, which would in theory allow him to align with the Beijing Olympics-2022.

The CAS therefore confirms in passing the disqualification of the women's relay team, which had won silver over 4x6 km behind Ukraine.

The three athletes, aged 37, 32 and 42 respectively, are now retired.

The World Anti-Doping Agency also banned Russia in December 2019 from participating in major international sporting events for four years, a ban disputed by Moscow and which will be examined in early November by the CAS.

"While it is encouraging that CAS has confirmed the doping finding against Zaytseva (...), the acquittal of the other athletes on such a fragile basis, despite resounding evidence of sample tampering, demonstrates that the system international is rigged to the detriment of clean athletes, "lamented Jim Walden, lawyer for Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov.

Former director of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, this scientist was the centerpiece of the Russian doping cover-up system, notably involving the Ministry of Sports and the FSB, before publicly denouncing it in May 2016, once he took refuge in the United States.

His testimony fed into the report of Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, before leading at the end of 2017 to the life suspension of 43 Russian athletes from the Olympic Games: thirteen medals out of 33, including four Olympic titles out of 13, are then withdrawn from Russia.

But on February 2, 2018, ten days before the opening of the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, the CAS disowned the IOC by completely canceling the sanction of 28 Russian athletes due to "insufficient" evidence.

In 11 other cases, the court lifted the life suspensions but maintains the ban on participating in the 2018 Olympics.

© 2020 AFP