Fifteen of the 28 Russian athletes whose doping suspensions were overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport this week will now be reconsidered for Pyeongchang 2018 eligibility by the IOC ©Getty Images

Fifteen of the 28 Russian athletes whose doping suspensions were overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) this week will now be reconsidered for Pyeongchang 2018 eligibility by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it has been confirmed.

Of the 28, the IOC said that 13 are active athletes and a further two are current coaches.

The cases of all 15 will now be re-analysed by an Invitation Review Panel, chaired by France's Valerie Fourneyron, which is responsible for inviting athletes to the "neutral" Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) team.

"Twenty-eight cases were upheld by the appeal, and of those 28, 13 are active athletes and two are now coaches, so the key number is 15," said IOC Presidential spokesperson Mark Adams here today.

"Those 15 names will be given to the Invitation Review Panel, chaired by Valerie Fourneyron, the former French Sports Minister, and she will review, or this group will review, those in the light of this CAS decision. 

"We will, as we've done, take an individual view on each of the athletes.

"Each of the cases will go back to the Invitation Review Panel and we will look at each of the cases in light of information or following the appeal to CAS.

"In terms of time process I don’t know and I understand these reasonings can take some time to appear.

"We will put those 15 back into the process and look at those cases again."

The 15 names have not been given, but it is likely to include the likes of sliders Alexander Tretiakov and Elena Nikitina and cross-country skier Alexander Legkov.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams spoke after the opening day of an Executive Board meeting ©Getty Images
IOC spokesperson Mark Adams spoke after the opening day of an Executive Board meeting ©Getty Images

The key problem now for the IOC is how many of the athletes deemed ineligible by Fourneyron's panel so far have been excluded for the same factors which CAS have now seemingly ruled as not strong enough to prove doping.

This includes a mention in the Duchess List of athletes drawn-up by ex-Moscow Laboratory chief Grigory Rodchenkov, to supposedly highlight those involved on the doping programme.

Adams was also asked if the OAR team has been a success or a failure so far.

"It's hard to judge something before it has happened, but I think the fact we have given individual clean athletes the right to compete is something that anybody who agrees with democracy, liberty and freedom would support," he said.

"You have to look at the moment, not the numbers, but how 75 per cent of those competing here have never been there before.

"We have given invitations on the basis of a very strict process.

"We can at least be pleased we have tried, rather than going for a blanket ban or letting everyone in, we've tried to find out on an individual basis for individual young athletes who have never competed at an Olympic Games before, to try to have those have their Olympic dream, which would be denied if a blanket ban was applied."