The Oswald Commission was a disciplinary commission of the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
("IOC"), chaired by IOC member
Denis Oswald. It was responsible for investigating and ruling on
doping violations by individual Russian athletes at the
2014 Winter Olympic Games
, ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'')
, nations = 88
, events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, athletes = 2,873
, opening = 7 February 2014
, closing = 23 February 2014
, opened_by = President Vladimir Putin
, cauldron =
, stadium = Fisht Olympi ...
in
Sochi.
By December 2017, the commission had banned 43 athletes from the Olympics for life, and retroactively disqualified them from their Sochi Olympic events with 13
medals
A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...
being stripped. 30 of the 43 athletes later successfully appealed to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its c ...
and had their sanctions overturned; and another 12 had their doping rulings confirmed, but had their lifetime bans commuted to bans for only the
2018 Winter Olympics
The 2018 Winter Olympics ( ko, 2018년 동계 올림픽, Icheon sip-pal nyeon Donggye Ollimpik), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (french: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; ko, 제23회 동계 올림픽, Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpi ...
in Pyeongchang.
One athlete did not appeal. The IOC banned Russia from competing at Pyeongchang as a result of the scandal, instead inviting 169 Russian athletes to compete as "Olympic Athletes from Russia" under the Olympic flag rather than under the Russian flag.
Background
Media attention began growing in December 2014 when German broadcaster
ARD aired the documentary "Top Secret Doping: How Russia makes its Winners", alleging the existence of a sophisticated, state-sponsored doping system within the
All-Russia Athletic Federation
The Russian Athletics Federation (RAF), previously named the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF; russian: Всероссийская федерация лёгкой атлетики, ВФЛА), is the governing body for the sport of athletics in ...
, and comparing it to
doping in East Germany
The government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) conducted a decades long program of coercive administration and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs, initially testosterone, later mainly anabolic drugs to its elite athletes. The ai ...
. In November 2015, the
World Anti-Doping Agency
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key ...
(WADA) published a report and the
International Association of Athletics Federations
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...
(IAAF) suspended Russia indefinitely from world track and field events. The United Kingdom Anti-Doping agency later assisted WADA with testing in Russia. In June 2016, they reported that they were unable to fully carry out their work and noted intimidation by armed
Federal Security Service (FSB) agents. After a Russian former lab director made allegations about the
2014 Winter Olympics in
Sochi, WADA commissioned an independent investigation led by
Richard McLaren. McLaren's investigation found corroborating evidence, concluding in a report published in July 2016 that the
Ministry of Sport and the FSB had operated a "state-directed failsafe system" using a "disappearing positive
estmethodology" (DPM) from "at least late 2011 to August 2015".
Sochi investigation
![Berlinger Bereg Kit doping sampling bottles by Augustas Didzgalvis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Berlinger_Bereg_Kit_doping_sampling_bottles_by_Augustas_Didzgalvis.jpg)
The
IOC
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
established the Disciplinary Commission and the Inquiry Commissions in July 2016, following the publication of the
McLaren Report
The McLaren Report (russian: Доклад Макларена) is the name given to an independent report released in two parts by professor Richard McLaren into allegations and evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia. It was commissioned by ...
. The IOC took this measure since
Prof. McLaren did not have the authority to bring forward Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) cases against individual athletes. After receiving the results from the final
McLaren Report
The McLaren Report (russian: Доклад Макларена) is the name given to an independent report released in two parts by professor Richard McLaren into allegations and evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia. It was commissioned by ...
in December 2016, the IOC opened proceedings against the 28 Russian athletes mentioned in the report (the number later rose to 46,
which are now being heard by the Oswald Commission.
On November 1, 2017 a cross-country skier
Alexander Legkov
Alexander Gennadiyevich Legkov (russian: Алекса́ндр Геннáдьевич Легков; born 7 May 1983) is a retired Russian cross-country skier who competed internationally between 2002 and 2017. He has five individual World Cup v ...
who won a gold medal was disqualified and banned for life by the Commission. His Sochi results were wiped from the record. A second Russian cross-country skier who didn't get to the podium was also disqualified and banned for life. 8 days later four more Russian cross-country skiers who won a combined 3 medals were found guilty of doping. The total was brought to ten when four skeleton racers were disqualified on November 22, 2017, two medals (gold and bronze) were stripped off. On November 24, 2017 the IOC imposed life bans on bobsledder
Alexandr Zubkov and speed skater
Olga Fatkulina who won a combined 3 medals (2 gold, 1 silver).
Olga Stulneva and
Aleksandr Rumyantsev
Alexander Vadimovich Rumyantsev (russian: Александр Вадимович Румянцев; born 5 December 1986) is a Russian speed skater.
Career
Rumyantsev competed at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics for Russia. In 2010, he was disq ...
were also disqualified. All their results were wiped from the record, meaning that Russia lost its first place in the medal standings. On November 27, 2017 IOC sanctioned
Olga Vilukhina
Olga Gennadyevna Vilukhina (russian: Ольга Геннадьевна Вилухина; born 22 March 1988) is a former Russian biathlete, who was competing on the World Cup circuit since the 2008–09 season.
Career
She has had four Top 10 f ...
,
Yana Romanova
Yana Sergeyevna Romanova (russian: Яна Сергеевна Романова; born 11 May 1983) is a retired Russian biathlete. She competed in various events at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics and won a silver medal in the 4×6 km relay ...
,
Sergey Chudinov,
Alexey Negodaylo, and
Dmitry Trunenkov, and stripped Vilyukhina and Romanova of their medals in biathlon. 3 athletes who didn't win medals were sanctioned on November 29, 2017.
2 days later
Olga Zaitseva
Olga Alekseyevna Zaitseva (russian: Ольга Алексеевна Зайцева; born 16 May 1978) is a former Russian biathlete. She began her career in 1994. After not competing in the 2014–15 season, Zaitseva announced her retirement o ...
who won silver in biathlon and two other athletes were also disqualified.
On December 12, 2017 six Russian ice hockey players were disqualified. Bobsledder
Alexey Voyevoda who had been already stripped of his gold medals due to the anti-doping violations committed by his teammates was sanctioned on December 18, 2017.
Eleven athletes were banned on December 22, 2017. Among them, silver medalists
Albert Demchenko
Albert Mikhailovich Demchenko (russian: Альберт Михайлович Демченко; born 27 November 1971) is a Russian luger who competed from 1992 to 2014. He is currently coaching the Russian luge team. His daughter Victoria Demchenk ...
and
Tatiana Ivanova
Tatiana Ivanovna Ivanova (russian: Татьяна Ивановна Иванова; born 16 February 1991) is a Russian luger who has competed since 2000. She won the women's singles event at the FIL European Luge Championships in 2010, 2012, 2018 ...
who were stripped of their medals.
List of disqualified sportspeople
See also
*
Russia at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Russia competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, from 7 to 23 February 2014 as the host nation. As host, Russia participated in all 15 sports, with a team consisting of 232 athletes. It is Russia's largest Winter Olympics team to date.
In ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oswald Commission
2016 scandals
2017 scandals
2016 in Russian sport
2017 in Russian sport
Doping in Russia
Sports scandals in Russia
2014 Winter Olympics