Bobsleigh and Skeleton Chief Supports IOC Sanctions on Russia

(ATR) International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation President Ivo Ferriani fully supports the IOC decision on Russian participation at the PyeongChang 2018 Games.

"I think the IOC made the correct decision and the good thing is also to see the Russian reaction – it is very positive," Ferriani tells Around the Rings at the Peace and Sport International Forum in Monaco.

"It is time to close this sad situation and move forward. We must give the hope for clean sport, fair sport, not just for the Russians, but for everybody. We must start now with the new year," said Ferriani, president of the IBSF since September 2010.

Russian bobsled pilot and current head of the Russian bobsled federation Alexander Zubkov was among the 11 Russian athletes stripped of Olympic medals and given lifetime bans from the Games. Zubkov and his teams won gold medals in both the two- and four-man events in Sochi. The four-time Olympian also carried the Russian flag at the closing ceremony.

Ferriani assessed what the IOC decision means for his sport with the PyeongChang Games just three months away.

"We are working on it – of course in the last 48 hours, we had a lot of work to do and we’re still working. We want to have the correct situation and to do that we have to work together with our executive board about the legal part and so on.

"Of course, we follow the IOC prescription because it was the correct thing to do at the correct time. It won’t be easy, but we will take all the necessary decisions on it."

Bobsled teams from Latvia and Switzerland are in line to be upgraded to gold medals with the likelihood of the IOC re-allocating medals.

"That is an IOC issue and I think they will decide the procedures very soon and the best way to do that in respect of the athletes," said the Italian bobsleigh chief and IOC member. "They will re-allocate the medals and prepare very well to give them the right importance and show some emotion."

IOC President Thomas Bach said every effort will be made to physically award athletes medals from Sochi at the PyeongChang Games.

"I think as a former athlete, Thomas Bach is very sensitive to that and absolutely committed to give the right conditions so that the athletes can enjoy what they missed before," Ferriani said.

Ferriani noted he was informed of the IOC decision prior to Bach’s press conference on Tuesday evening while on a conference call with Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations head Gian Franco Kasper and other winter federation leaders.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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