MOSCOW, February 9 (RAPSI) – The Ad hoc Division of the Court of arbitration for sport (CAS) has dismissed two appeals filed by 47 Russian athletes against ruling of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not inviting them to participate in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, the court’s press-release reads on Friday.

The arbitrators found that an invitation process for Russian athletes established by the IOC could not be defined as a sanction. The court’s panel noted that despite the Russian Olympic Committee being suspended, individual athletes were still invited to participate in the Games.

According to the panel, “the applicants acknowledged that the IOC had the ability to institute such process” and noted that there was no evidence that  evaluation of athletes carried out by IOC commissions  was discriminatory.

On February 1, CAS fully upheld 28 and partially upheld 11 appeals filed by Russian athletes disqualified for life from participating in the Olympic games because of the doping suspicions.

CAS reviewed each of the cases on individual basis and did not find evidence against 28 athletes to be sufficient. At the same the court ruled that 11 athletes did violate anti-doping rule regulation but changed the punishment: instead of being banned for life the sportsmen were prohibited only from participating in the upcoming Olympic games in the Republic of Korea. Later, Thomas Bach stated that he was disappointed with the CAS decision and called for reformation of the court.

On February 5, an IOC commission refused to invite 13 athletes and 2 coaches from Russia, who had earlier been found not guilty of violating anti-doping rules.

On February 8, the court’s panel dismissed two appeals filed by 15 Russian athletes and coaches, who were not invited by the IOC to participate in the Games.