MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. Russian skeleton racers Aleksandr Tretiakov and Elena Nikitina has been stripped of their medals won at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and were also banned for life, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced in its statement on Wednesday.
"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," the IOC said in its statement.
"As a result, the four Russian skeleton athletes, Sochi 2014 bronze medalist Elena Nikitina, Mariia Orlova, Olga Potylitsyna and Sochi 2014 gold medalist Aleksandr Tretiakov, have been sanctioned," according to the statement.
According to the statement from the IOC, IOC Disciplinary Commission was composed for these four particular cases of Russian skeleton racers of Denis Oswald, who is the chairman of the commission, Juan Antonio Samaranch and Tony Estanguet."
The commission established that "Elena Nikitina, Mariia Orlova, Olga Potylitsyna and Aleksandr Tretiakov 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 statement added.
The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) temporarily suspended four Russian Skeleton racers at the issue on December 30, 2016, when the IOC initiated disciplinary proceedings over violations of anti-doping regulations at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
In January 2017, the IBSF cleared the Russian athletes of the imposed suspension citing the lack of evidence.
Tretiakov is the bronze medal winner of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada, the 2013 World Champion and the 2017 European champion as well as four-time silver and two-time bronze medalist of the world championships.
He won the gold in men’s skeleton at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, while his teammate Nikitina won bronze in women’s competitions.
The Oswald-led Commission said in its statement that Tretiakov "is disqualified from the events in which he participated upon the occasion of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, in 2014, namely the Men’s Individual Skeleton Event, in which he ranked 1st and for which he was awarded a gold medal, a medallist pin and a diploma."
The Committee also ruled that Tretiakov, "has the medal, the medallist pin and the diploma obtained in the Men’s Individual Skeleton Event withdrawn and is ordered to return the same to the International Olympic Committee."