IOC SANCTIONS GOLD MEDALIST ALEKSANDR TRETIAKOV , 3 OTHERS

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The International Olympic Committee, IOC today stripped four Russian athletes of the medals they obtained at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games in Russia.

The affected athletes are Sochi 2014 bronze medallist Elena NIKITINA, Mariia ORLOVA, Olga POTYLITSYNA and Sochi 2014 gold medalist Aleksandr TRETIAKOV.

“Today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published new decisions from the Oswald Commission hearings, which are being conducted in the context of the Sochi 2014 forensic and analytic doping investigations.

“As a result, the four Russian skeleton athletes, Sochi 2014 bronze medallist Elena NIKITINA, Mariia ORLOVA, Olga POTYLITSYNA and Sochi 2014 gold medallist Aleksandr TRETIAKOV, have been sanctioned”, the IOC said, adding that hearings concerning other athletes will be held over the next few weeks.

According to the IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for these four cases of Mr Denis Oswald (Chairman), Mr Juan Antonio Samaranch and Mr Tony Estanguet, Elena NIKITINA, Mariia ORLOVA, Olga POTYLITSYNA and Aleksandr TRETIAKOV are found to have committed anti-doping rule violations pursuant to Article 2 of the International Olympic Committee Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, in 2014, and are disqualified from the events in which they participated.

In addition, the four athletes are declared ineligible to be accredited in any capacity for all editions of the Games of the Olympiad and the Olympic Winter Games subsequent to the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014.