The International Olympic Committee cleared 169 Russian athletes Sunday to compete at the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics, although the list likely doesn't include Korean-born short track star Victor An.
In December, the IOC banned Russia from PyeongChang 2018 for state-sponsored doping and said it would only allow clean athletes to compete as neutrals, each formally referred to as an "Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR)."
"Following a detailed and comprehensive invitation process, the IOC confirmed invitations to 169 athletes who can compete as 'Olympic Athlete from Russia,'" the IOC said. "They were chosen from the pool of 389 athletes who could potentially be invited to the Games depending on available quota places."
(Yonhap)
If these athletes win gold medals at PyeongChang, the Olympic Flag will be raised and the Olympic Anthem will be played during the medal ceremony.
The IOC's number matches the size of the delegation announced last Thursday by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), but the IOC didn't publish names of the cleared athletes.
The ROC did say its list of 169 was missing some top athletes, including An, a six-time Olympic short track gold medalist.
Born in Seoul as Ahn Hyun-soo, Victor An won three gold medals for his native country at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. He switched allegiance to Russia in 2011 amid a fallout from bitter factional feuds within South Korean skating and went on to add three more gold medals to his impressive resume at Sochi 2014.
But Russian news reports first claimed last Tuesday that An wasn't included in the list of eligible athletes. The reasons for his exclusion weren't immediately apparent, though it was widely presumed An was implicated in doping.
In a recent teleconference, IOC President Thomas Bach said athletes left off the eligibility list had "serious indications" of doping.
"There could be suspicion, there could be maybe even an ongoing procedure, there could be many factors which did not lead to the satisfaction of the panel (reviewing athletes' eligibility)," he was quoted as saying.
But Bach also said keeping athletes off the list didn't necessarily mean the panel had "the final evidence for an anti-doping violation."
In an open letter to Bach, An demanded an explanation from the IOC for his exclusion.
"It is outrageous that there is no concrete reason which explains my exclusion from the Olympics, and furthermore people now view me as an athlete who used doping," An wrote, according to Russian media. "During my entire career journey in short track, I've never given a reason to doubt my honesty and my integrity, especially when it comes to my victories, which I achieved with nothing but my strength and dedication."
An also lamented losing a chance to skate in his native country, saying competing in PyeongChang would have been "an especially significant part of my career for several reasons." (Yonhap)
