EXTRA IBSF lifts suspensions of Russian sliders with Olympic life bans

Berlin (dpa) - The ruling bobsleigh and skeleton body IBSF has lifted the provisional suspension of nine Russian sliders who have been banned for life from the Olympics, saying it was awaiting more evidence.The nine include two-time 2014 bobsleigh Olympic champion Alexander Zhubkov who now heads Russia‘s bobsleigh federation, and the 2014 skeleton gold medallist Alexander Tretyakov.The BSF said "there is still not yet sufficient evidence of the above mentioned individual athletes and officials that would justify the provisional suspension being maintained for the time being."The athletes were banned for life from the Olympics and disqualified from the 2014 events by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after being mentioned in a report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren which spoke of doping schemes in Sochi including tampering with samples. The full reasoning is yet to be published.