Moscow, December 23: Even Russia itself can’t deny that this month has brought some catastrophic news for the sports sector. While in the beginning of this month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Russian Olympic team from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea over state-sponsored doping row, on Friday IOC have banned 11 Russian athletes for life after committing doping offenses at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
"To date, the number of cases opened by the [IOC] disciplinary commission [for Sochi 2014] has reached 46 after additional findings from the re-analyses," the IOC said. "All 46 of them have been handled, of which three have been filed. As some investigations are still ongoing [notably the forensic analysis of the bottles], it cannot be excluded that there might be new elements that would justify opening further new cases and holding more hearings, " it added.