The Oswald Commission was a disciplinary commission of the International Olympic Committee ("IOC"), chaired by IOC member Denis Oswald. It was responsible for investigating and ruling on doping violations by individual Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
By December 2017, the commission had banned 43 athletes from the Olympics for life, and retroactively disqualified them from their Sochi Olympic events with 13 medals being stripped. 30 of the 43 athletes later successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and had their sanctions overturned; and another 12 had their doping rulings confirmed, but had their lifetime bans commuted to bans for only the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. One athlete did not appeal. The IOC banned Russia from competing at Pyeongchang as a result of the scandal, instead inviting 169 Russian athletes to compete as "Olympic Athletes from Russia" under the Olympic flag rather than under the Russian flag.
Background Media attention began growing in December 2014 when German broadcaster ARD aired the documentary "Top Secret Doping: How Russia makes its Winners", alleging the existence of a sophisticated, state-sponsored doping system within the All-Russia Athletic Federation, and comparing it to doping in East Germany. In November 2015, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published a report and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspended Russia indefinitely from world track and field events. The United Kingdom Anti-Doping agency later assisted WADA with testing in Russia. In June 2016, they reported that they were unable to fully carry out their work and noted intimidation by armed Federal Security Service (FSB) agents. After a Russian former lab director made allegations about the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, WADA commissioned an independent investigation led by Richard McLaren. McLaren's investigation found corroborating evidence, concluding in a report published in July 2016 that the Ministry of Sport and the FSB had operated a "state-directed failsafe system" using a "disappearing positive [test] methodology" (DPM) from "at least late 2011 to August 2015".
Sochi investigation
The IOC established the Disciplinary Commission and the Inquiry Commissions in July 2016, following the publication of the McLaren Report. The IOC took this measure since Prof. McLaren did not have the authority to bring forward Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) cases against individual athletes. After receiving the results from the final McLaren Report in December 2016, the IOC opened proceedings against the 28 Russian athletes mentioned in the report (the number later rose to 46, which are now being heard by the Oswald Commission.
On November 1, 2017 a cross-country skier Alexander Legkov who won a gold medal was disqualified and banned for life by the Commission. His Sochi results were wiped from the record. A second Russian cross-country skier who didn't get to the podium was also disqualified and banned for life. 8 days later four more Russian cross-country skiers who won a combined 3 medals were found guilty of doping. The total was brought to ten when four skeleton racers were disqualified on November 22, 2017, two medals (gold and bronze) were stripped off. On November 24, 2017 the IOC imposed life bans on bobsledder Alexandr Zubkov and speed skater Olga Fatkulina who won a combined 3 medals (2 gold, 1 silver). Olga Stulneva and Aleksandr Rumyantsev were also disqualified. All their results were wiped from the record, meaning that Russia lost its first place in the medal standings. On November 27, 2017 IOC sanctioned Olga Vilukhina, Yana Romanova, Sergey Chudinov, Alexey Negodaylo, and Dmitry Trunenkov, and stripped Vilyukhina and Romanova of their medals in biathlon. 3 athletes who didn't win medals were sanctioned on November 29, 2017. 2 days later Olga Zaitseva who won silver in biathlon and two other athletes were also disqualified. On December 12, 2017 six Russian ice hockey players were disqualified. Bobsledder Alexey Voyevoda who had been already stripped of his gold medals due to the anti-doping violations committed by his teammates was sanctioned on December 18, 2017. Eleven athletes were banned on December 22, 2017. Among them, silver medalists Albert Demchenko and Tatiana Ivanova who were stripped of their medals.
List of disqualified sportspeople NameCountrySportBanned substanceMedalsDetails of testCAS appeals resultAlexander LegkovCross-country skiing Disappearing sample gold silver IOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedEvgeniy BelovCross-country skiing Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedMaksim VylegzhaninCross-country skiingDisappearing sample silver silver silverIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedEvgenia ShapovalovaCross-country skiing Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedAlexei PetukhovCross-country skiing Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedYulia IvanovaCross-country skiing Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldAleksandr TretyakovSkeleton Disappearing sample goldIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedElena NikitinaSkeleton Disappearing sample bronzeIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedOlga PotylitsinaSkeleton Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedMaria OrlovaSkeleton Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedOlga StulnevaBobsleigh Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedAlexandr ZubkovBobsleigh Disappearing sample gold goldIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldOlga FatkulinaSpeed skating Disappearing sample silverIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedAleksandr RumyantsevSpeed skating Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedAleksei NegodayloBobsleigh Disappearing sample goldIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Team disqualifiedDmitry TrunenkovBobsleigh Disappearing sample goldIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Team disqualifiedOlga VilukhinaBiathlonDisappearing sample silver silverIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedYana RomanovaBiathlonDisappearing sample silverIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedSergei ChudinovSkeleton Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedAlexander KasjanovBobsleigh Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldAleksei PushkarevBobsleigh Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldIlvir HuzinBobsleigh Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldYuliya ChekalyovaCross-country skiing Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldAnastasia DotsenkoCross-country skiing Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldOlga ZaitsevaBiathlonDisappearing sample silverIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldInna DyubanokIce hockey Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldYekaterina LebedevaIce hockey Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Team disqualifiedYekaterina PashkevichIce hockey Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Team disqualifiedAnna ShibanovaIce hockey Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldYekaterina SmolentsevaIce hockey Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Team disqualifiedGalina SkibaIce hockey Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldAlexey VoyevodaBobsleighDisappearing sample gold goldIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions upheldAlbert DemchenkoLugeDisappearing sample silver silverIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedTatiana IvanovaLugeDisappearing sample silverIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedIvan SkobrevSpeed skatingDisappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedArtyom KuznetsovSpeed skatingDisappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedLiudmila UdobkinaBobsleighDisappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedMaxim BeluginBobsleighDisappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017No appeal filedTatiana BurinaIce hockey Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Team disqualifiedAnna ShukinaIce hockey Disappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Team disqualifiedNikita KryukovCross-country skiingDisappearing sample silverIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedAlexander BessmertnykhCross-country skiingDisappearing sample silverIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstatedNatalya MatveyevaCross-country skiingDisappearing sampleIOC sanction imposed in 2017Sanctions annulled/Results reinstated
See also Russia at the 2014 Winter Olympics
References