May 03, 2018 – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will be appealing the decision made by the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) to clear 28 Russian athletes of doping sanctions from the Sochi 2014 Olympic reports Inside the Games and other media.

A detailed testimonial has yet to be released, but the IOC’s appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal will likely challenge the decision by the CAS to rescind sanctions against Russian athletes claiming that decision was based on standards typically applied to criminal law rather than sports law. Criminal law adheres to standards of absolute proof, whereas a civil court, such as the CAS, usually sanctions when cases are proven “beyond a reasonable doubt”.

The CAS unanimous ruling to reinstate 28 of 39 Russian athletes, who appealed their IOC sanctions, was apparently decided based on insufficient evidence against each individual.

While the CAS did uphold the appeals of the charged Russian athletes, they maintained that despite being cleared, the athletes were not being declared innocent of involvement in organized doping programs.

The Court emphasized that their mandate was “not to determine generally whether there was an organized scheme allowing the manipulation of doping control samples… but was strictly limited to dealing with 39 individual cases and to assess the evidence applicable to each athlete on an individual basis.”

Whether the appeal passes depends on the review by the Swiss Federal Tribunal of the legal interpretation that resulted in the CAS decisions.

After the initial annulment, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) voiced concerns with the CAS decision and expressed their support for an appeal: “WADA understands that this decision will cause dismay and frustration among athletes. The agency supports the IOC’s intention to analyze these decisions very carefully and consider all options, including an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.”

With the appeal now moving forward, IOC President Thomas Bach stated that, “the chances of winning did not play a role” in their decision, and that: “The only factor which led us to the decision was this protection of clean athletes who have finished behind these Russian athletes who have note been declared innocent.”

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