MOSCOW, February 9 (RAPSI) – Russian athletes not invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to participate in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games may appeal the recent ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, as noted by Antonio Rigozzi, an expert in sports law and a founding partner of Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler law firm.

“[The athletes] can file an action to set aside the CAS Ad hoc Division awards and seek an injunction ordering the IOC to invite them as urgent provisional measures pending the determination of the action to set aside,” Rigozzi said.

He added that chances of success for such action were limited considering the decision of the Federal Supreme Court in a dispute between the Russian Paralympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee.

According to Rigozzi, the outcome of the CAS deliberations was not really surprising as it was in line with what was decided before the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Earlier today, the Ad hoc Division of the CAS dismissed two appeals filed by 47 Russian athletes against ruling of the IOC not inviting them to participate in the Games in PyeongChang. 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.

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.