Just hours before the ceremonial start of the PyeongChang Games, the Court of Arbitration for Sport denied the 11th-hour appeals filed by 45 Russian athletes who were hoping for a last-minute invitation to the Olympics.
The ruling was announced at a brief news conference Friday morning, about nine hours before athletes from Russia and around the world were scheduled to march in the Opening Ceremonies. Matthieu Reeb, the CAS secretary general, delivered the news, reading from a prepared statement, but did not field any questions.
The exact composition of the Russian contingent has been shrouded in uncertainty for months, and even as the fate of nearly four dozen Russian athletes was being considered by CAS, some competitions here had already begun, including figure skating, freestyle skiing and curling.
Reeb said CAS found the Russian athletes failed to demonstrate in their appeals that the two International Olympic Committee panels charged with ruling on eligibility acted improperly.
“There was no finding that it was carried out in a discriminatory, arbitrary or unfair manner,” he said. “The [CAS] panel also concluded that there was no evidence that these two commissions improperly exercised their discretion.”
The lawyers representing the Russian athletes said they weren’t given the reasons they weren’t invited and weren’t allowed to “to prove these grounds wrong.” The law firm, the Switzerland-based Schellenberg Wittmer, issued a statement calling the CAS decision “unfair and harmful” and said the athletes have been barred “for no valid reason.”
“Their Olympic dreams have been shattered,” the statement read.
The ruling means 168 Russian athletes are expected to participate in these PyeongChang Olympics, but many of the country’s top performers will not be competing.
In the days leading into these Games, athletes from other countries have been critical of the process and expressed concerns about the fairness of Olympic competition, so Friday’s CAS decision was welcome news in many corners. Anita DeFrantz, a member of both the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee, said the decision was a victory for clean athletes and the IOC, whose authority had effectively been challenged.