UPDATE: LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The president of the Russian Olympic committee says the country’s athletes need time to consider whether they will take part in the Pyeongchang Games.
Alexander Zhukov says “we plan for it to be discussed” by Russian sports officials and athletes at a forthcoming meeting before a final decision on participation, but didn’t give a date.
Zhukov paints the ruling as a compromise, saying “there’s positive and negative sides,” and praising the International Olympic Committee decision to use the term “Olympic Athlete from Russia” for Russian competitors under a neutral flag.
Previously, suspended countries have used terms such as “Independent Olympic Athlete,” which was used last year for Kuwaiti competitors at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Zhukov says “they’ll be called Russian athletes and not some kind of neutrals … that’s very important.”
Two-time reigning world champion figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva, who also appeared in front of the IOC board, won’t say if she’ll compete as a neutral.
Medvedeva says “it will be discussed more and it’s very early to ask questions like that.”
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UPDATE: LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The IOC has banned Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko for life from the Olympics for his role in the country’s doping program.
Mutko, who was sports minister at the time of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, remains head of the 2018 World Cup organizing committee.
IOC commission chairman Samuel Schmid says the doping program “was under the authority of the Russian sports ministry. That is why the then sports minister has responsibility for the failure of this system.”
Mutko appeared at the Kremlin last week alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino. There was no immediate comment from FIFA on Mukto’s continuing role as head of the Russian soccer federation and the World Cup organizing committee.
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LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) – The International Olympic Committee says Russian athletes will be able to compete at the upcoming Pyeongchang Olympics as neutrals.
This comes after the IOC reviewed evidence that the country ran an orchestrated doping program at the 2014 Sochi Games.
The IOC, which also suspended the Russian Olympic committee and IOC member Alexander Zhukov, says some competitors will be invited to participate as an “Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR)” without their national flag or anthem.
Russia could refuse the offer and boycott the games.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said it would be humiliating for Russia to compete without national symbols.
The IOC also imposed a fine of $15 million on the Russian Olympic committee.
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