A ban of Russia’s top skeleton athletes has been lifted due to a lack of evidence from a recent World Anti-Doping Agency-commissioned report on widespread Russian doping.
On Dec. 30, Russia’s two Sochi Olympic skeleton medalists, including gold medalist Aleksandr Tretiyakov, were among four Russian sliders provisionally suspended through Jan. 19 in response to the investigation into Russian doping at the Sochi Winter Games.
The four skeleton athletes appealed the ban and had a hearing in front of a panel last Tuesday.
On Sunday, the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation said the panel ruled that the WADA-commissioned Russian doping report “provides sufficient reason to conduct further investigation by both the IOC and the IBSF into the role of the athletes in ‘tampering or attempted tampering of any doping control’ … but at the same time it comes to the conclusion that at this very moment there is not (yet) sufficient evidence against the athletes that would justify the provisional suspension.