The Russian Paralympic athletes had been under scrutiny since early August when the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) chose to impose a ban on the participants of the upcoming games due to an alleged country-wide doping system.
Advertisement
Earlier on Tuesday, the CAS said in a statement that it had dismissed the appeal filed by the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) against the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to suspend RPC’s membership.
The Paralympics ban was the latest blow to Russian sport, which has been condemned by a mountain of doping allegations in recent months.
“The CAS Panel in charge of this matter found that the IPC did not violate any procedural rule in dealing with the disciplinary process leading to the RPC’s suspension and that the decision to ban the RPC was made in accordance with the IPC Rules and was proportionate in the circumstances”, a statement posted on the website of the CAS said.
The decision has unsurprisingly angered Medvedev, the Prime Minister labelling it “cynical” and an “attack” on Russian sport due to their previous successes.
At the time, the IPC’s president, Sir Philip Craven, said Russian Federation had “catastrophically failed” its Paralympians and said he was “disgusted” by what he called Russia’s “medals over morals mentality”.
With Russia excluded from the Paralympics, the IPC said it will now “redistribute the 267 slots that had been secured by Russian athletes to compete”.
However IPC president Philip Craven said the decision “underlines our strong belief that doping has absolutely no place in Paralympic sport”.
Their team topped the medal table at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in the Russian city of Sochi after taking second place behind China at London 2012.
But the International Olympic Committee eventually controversially chose to allow some Russian athletes to take part provided they passed a vetting process.
“Regardless of whether the Russian Paralympics Committee is guilty of the charges, punishing innocent athletes and not allowing them to defend themselves – which was an opportunity afforded to the Russian Olympics athletes – this is a flagrant violation of human rights”, Mr. Karpenko said, according to the BBC.
“It is a sad day for the Paralympic Movement, but we hope also a new beginning”, Mr.
Advertisement
The Switzerland-based CAS also ruled on Russian appeals of rulings for individual sports at the Olympics, upholding complete bans of weightlifters and track and field competitors, for example.
