The IOC responded on Monday with a further statement following Friday’s approval of a list of 389 potential Russian neutral athletes, who could compete at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. Viktor Ahn, a global star skater, Anton Shipulin and Sergey Ustiugov were banned.

Please find the statement below:

“To protect the rights of the persons involved, the IOC cannot comment on any individual cases but will communicate the invitation list in due course. We refer you to our press release which we published on Friday which explains how the process works and how the athletes have been chosen for the pool of athletes who can be considered for invitation to PyeongChang 2018.

Please find below the response of Dr Valerie Fourneyron, the chair of the Independent Testing Authority and former French Sports Minister, who chaired our OAR Invitation Review Panel:

“When putting this list together the Invitation Review Panel that I chaired wanted to ensure that only clean Russian athletes could be invited to the Olympic Winter Games.

By carefully looking at all the evidence available we wanted to be absolutely certain that there was not the slightest doubt or suspicion against any of those athletes who will be invited.

Not being included on the invitation list does not necessarily mean that an athlete has been doped – it should not automatically cast doubt on their integrity.”

The IOC would like to make clear that there may still be further enquires and further anti-doping procedures coming up against a number of those athletes who have not been included on the pool of athletes considered for invitation.”