MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has decided to uphold the appeals of 28 Russian athletes whom the International Olympic Committee had earlier banned for life from participating in the Olympic Games over accusations of breaching anti-doping rules at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, according to the court’s news release.

The athletes came under the IOC’s ban following a probe by the IOC commission under Denis Oswald, which retested the doping samples from the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. 

The court upheld the appeals of Ekaterina Lebedeva (ice hockey), Dmitry Trunenkov (bobsleigh), Ekaterina Pashkevich (ice hockey), Aleksei Negodailo (bobsleigh), Tatiana Burina (ice hockey), Olga Stulneva (bobsleigh), Anna Shchukina (ice hockey), Liudmila Udobkina (bobsleigh), Ekaterina Smolentseva (ice hockey), Aleksander Tretiakov (skeleton), Sergei Chudinov (skeleton), Elena Nikitina (skeleton), Olga Potylitsyna (skeleton), Maria Orlova (skeleton), Alexander Kasyanov (bobsleigh), Alexander Legkov (cross-country skiing), Evgeniy Belov (cross-country skiing), Maxim Vylegzhanin (cross-country skiing), Alexey Petukhov (cross-country skiing), Nikita Kryukov (cross-country skiing), Alexander Bessmertnykh (cross-country skiing), Evgenia Shapovalova (cross-country skiing), Natalia Matveeva (cross-country skiing), Olga Fatkulina (speed skating) and Alexander Rumyantsev (speed skating). 

The sanctions against them were annulled and their individual results achieved in Sochi 2014 were reinstated. Earlier reports said that in case of the CAS favorable decision these athletes might participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea’s PyeongChang on February 9-25.

The court also partially upheld appeals of 11 Russian athletes, replacing a life ban from all Olympic Games with a ban on participating only in the PyeongChang Games, the press release said.

The 11 athletes are bobsledders Aleksandr Zubkov, Alexey Voevoda, Alexander Kasyanov, Aleksei Pushkarev and Ilvir Khuzin, cross-country skiers Julia Ivanova, Julia Chekaleva, Anastasia Dotsenko and ice hockey players Galina Skiba, Anna Shibanova and Inna Dyubanok.

Their results at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games are still annulled and their anti-doping violations have been confirmed, but they will only miss the next edition of the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang.