April 26, 2018 – It’s been quite a month for Russian cross-country ski star, Alexander Legkov. Earlier in April while at a sports competition in Khanty-Mansiisk, Russia, Legkov, 35, who has been competing since 2002, announced his retirement from international competition.

“Khanty-Mansiisk is my home city and will always be. I say stop here to my professional career on international tournaments,” said Legkov according to an article in Russian news agency TASS. “I will see all of you later, not at international tournaments, but perhaps at domestic tournaments or marathons. I am announcing the end of my international sports career.”

The Sochi 2014 Olympic champ amassed 35 World Cup podiums during his career including nine World Cup victories along with the 2013 Tour de Ski title.

Following his retirement announcement, on April 23, the Court of Arbitration on Sport (CAS) published its findings confirming there was “no direct evidence” to support the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) allegations against Legkov and 27 other Russian athletes reports Inside The Games. The April 23 CAS report was further documentation that corrobrated the agency’s earlier decision (on Feb. 1) to uphold an appeal by the 28 athletes vs the IOC dating back to the Russian doping scandal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The CAS did uphold sanctions against 11 Russian athletes back on Feb. 1.

Back in Nov. 2017 Legkov was the first athlete to be stripped of his Olympic 50km title by the IOC and banned from the Games for life. Soon after Russian compatriot Evgeniy Belov, who also won silver in the men’s 4x10km cross-country event at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, was also stripped of his medal and sanctioned for life.

Despite being cleared by the CAS in early February, before the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, the IOC rejected an appeal from the Russian Olympic Committee to allow Legkov and other cleared athletes to compete. The IOC did allow Russian athletes to compete at the Games under the designation of Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR).

According to Inside The Games the CAS “…ruled that athletes implicated in the doping system in operation at Sochi 2014 could only be found guilty of an anti-doping rule violation if it could be proved they were personally and knowingly involved.”

“It is insufficient merely to establish the existence of a general sample-swapping scheme; rather, the Panel must be comfortably satisfied that the athlete was personally and knowingly implicated in particular acts that formed part of, and facilitated the commission of, the substitution of his urine within that scheme,” the CAS decision reads.

“In short, therefore, there is no direct evidence that establishes either that the athlete provided clean urine with the knowledge that this would be used for the purpose of urine substitution or that he did not fully close the sample bottles.”

The 28 Russian athletes had their 2014 Sochi results reinstated. There were 11 Russian athletes who lost their appeals and will have their bans remain in place.

CAS ruling here.
TASS report here.
Inside The Games report here.