Lausanne, 21 February 2017 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has today rejected urgent
requests for provisional measures filed by five Russian cross country skiers – Alexey Petukhov,
Evgenia Shapovalova, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov. The athletes
sought to stay the execution of the decisions taken by the FIS Doping Panel on 25 January 2017
(Alexander Legov and Evgeniy Belov) and on 6 February 2017 (Alexey Petukhov, Evgenia
Shapovalova and Maxim Vylegzhanin), which confirmed their provisional suspensions, in order to be
able to compete at the 2017 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships that will take place in Lahti, Finland
from 22 February to 5 March 2017. Consequently, the athletes remain provisionally suspended.
On 22 December 2016, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) opened investigation procedures
against the athletes further to evidence presented in the second McLaren Independent Investigation
Report that urine samples provided by the athletes during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games may
have been tampered with, by manipulation of samples in the WADA-accredited laboratory in Sochi.
The same day, the FIS Doping Panel imposed provisional suspensions on each athlete, which were
confirmed in the decisions dated 25 January 2017 and 6 February 2017.
The decisions issued today are given in response to requests for provisional measures filed during the
course of the athletes’ appeal arbitration procedures before the CAS. The arbitration procedures are
still ongoing and the parties are currently exchanging written submissions and the process of
appointing the arbitrators who will decide the matters is underway. At this early stage of the proceedings,
it is not possible to determine when the final decisions will be issued.
For further information related to the CAS activity and procedures in general, please contact either Matthieu Reeb, CAS Secretary
General, or Katy Hogg, Communications Officer. Château de Béthusy, Avenue de Beaumont 2, 1012 Lausanne, Switzerland.
media@tas-cas.org; Tel: (41 21) 613 50 00; fax: (41 21) 613 50 01, or consult the CAS website: www.tas-cas.org
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
