The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Friday it has turned down appeals from four Russians against sanctions by the ruling bobsleigh and skeleton federation ISBF over doping violations, including Alexander Zubkov.
Zubkov originally won double gold at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games where he was also Russia’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony. He was later president of the Russian bobsleigh federation, a position he rested over the doping allegations.
The ISBF last year banned Zubkov and the three others in connection with a forbidden “sample-swapping scheme in operation at the Sochi Games” as part of wide-ranging and state sponsored doping practices uncovered by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Zubkov and Russia were already stripped of the two golds by the International Olympic Committee in 2017.
The CAS panel now confirmed an ISBF two-year ban until December 2020 imposed on the athletes, and their disqualification from all events from February 2014 onwards.
But the judges also turned down a request from WADA for a longer ban.