(ATR) The International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation bans four Russian bobsledders, including Russian Bobsleigh Federation president Alexander Zubkov, from the sport for two years for doping.
A four-time Olympian, Zubkov carried the Russian flag at the opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Games and at age 39, became one of the oldest bobsleigh drivers to win gold medals at an Olympics. The IOC in 2017 stripped him of the gold medals he won in the two- and four-man bobsleigh in Sochi, citing doping offenses.
The IBSF announced Wednesday that its Anti-Doping Hearing Panel, accepting an earlier ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), has found that Zubkov, Alexander Kasyanov, Aleksei Pushkarev and Ilvir Khuzin were all part of the Russian scheme in Sochi that swapped steroid-tainted urine samples with clean ones.
The sanction bars them from taking part in the sport until the end of the ban in December 2020. That means Zubkov should have to give up his post as the head of the Russian Bobsleigh Federation.
But it appears he may not be ready to throw in the towel just yet. Zubkov told The Associated Press he may appeal the verdict and has no plans to step down as federation president.
He appears to have some legal grounds to fight the ban.
The Moscow City Court refused in November to recognize the ruling by CAS to find Zubkov guilty of violating anti-doping rules during the Sochi Games. An appeal by the Russian Olympic Committee was rejected.
The IOC has dismissed the Moscow ruling and says it is working with the Russian Olympic Committee to get Zubkov to return the gold medals that he won in Sochi.
Written by Gerard Farek
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