MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Veovoda was stripped of his gold medals, won at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia’s Sochi, after one of his partners Aleksandr Zubkov was banned by the IOC in November.
"Alexey Voevoda is 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 is disqualified from the events in which he participated," the IOC said in a statement.
Alexey Voevoda was also banned from all future Olympic Games.
Commenting on the issue, Russian bobsledder Alexey Voevoda said that he was glad to have an opportunity to file an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decision of the IOC.
"Hurray, finally they remembered about me as well, now there is an occasion to file an appeal with the CAS! … There are many other intriguing news stories every day, but our Western 'colleagues' continue to pull them out of thin air. What has prevented them from making such a decision earlier? After all, my results were canceled simultaneously with my teammates," Voevoda told the R-Sport news agency on Monday.
The athlete stressed that both IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) should be reformed.
"Today Olympism is only a powerful tool of political pressure. It is necessary to completely reform the IOC, WADA, because the world sports community has rather bad prospects if they [IOC, WADA] remain as they are,” Voevoda said.
Also, earlier on Monday, IOC announced its decision to lift charges of doping violations off one Russian athlete. According to insidethegames.biz news outlet, citing the commission’s document seen by it, the mentioned athlete was Russian speed skater Denis Yuskov. The athlete has not won any medals in the Sochi games.
The IOC has stripped Russian athletes of 11 medals and the first place in the 2014 games.
IPC Decision on Russian Paralympians to Be Same as IOC Ruling
The decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on the participation of the Russian Paralympians in the 2018 Winter Games will be the same as the International Olympic Committee's ruling on the Russian athletes, head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Alexander Zhukov told the R-Sport agency on Monday.
"I think the decision will be roughly the same as the one on the Olympic athletes," Zhukov said.
In 2016, following the publication of the report of WADA's independent commission headed by Richard McLaren on Russia’s alleged involvement in doping activities, the IPC suspended membership of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) and announced a ban on Russia's Paralympic athletes from the 2016 Summer and possibly 2018 Winter Paralympics.
In September, the IPC prolonged the Russian organization's suspension, but at the same time allowed Russian athletes to compete in some fields in 2018 under the neutral flag.
In early December, the IOC suspended the Russian National Olympic Committee over alleged violations of anti-doping rules at various sporting events, prohibiting the Russian team to compete under the national flag in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
