JOIN USThe Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Friday dismissed 47 appeals from Russian athletes and coaches to take part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, putting an end to a long saga over their Olympic fate.
The Russians had appealed their exclusion from the Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the doping scandal from the 2014 Sochi Games.
"In its decisions, the CAS arbitrators have considered that the process created by the IOC to establish an invitation list of Russian athletes to compete as Olympic athletes from Russia (OAR) could not be described as a sanction but rather as an eligibility decision," CAS Secretary General Matthieu Reeb said, reading from a statement.
The IOC in December banned Russia from the Games over doping in the country that included massive manipulation of doping samples at the Sochi Olympics and more than 1,000 athletes across several sports.
It also banned dozens of athletes from the Games for life and stripped their Sochi Games medals following several investigations into the doping affair.
"We welcome this decision which supports the fight against doping and brings clarity for all athletes," an IOC spokesperson said on Friday.
Days earlier CAS had upheld the appeal of 28 athletes due to insufficient evidence but the IOC still refused to invite them saying the evidence was there.
Instead, it invited 169 carefully screened Russian athletes to compete as neutrals under the Olympic flag. It has also suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).