Legkov to fight Olympic ban as he insists 'my medal is clean'

Berlin (dpa) - Disqualified Olympic cross-country skiing champion Alexander Legkov has protested his innocence and will fight his doping-related Games ban up to the European Court of Justice, if necessary."My medal is clean. I stand upright and fight," Legkov vowed in a personal statement issued by his German lawyers late Monday."The only thing what I want is to be treated fairly, to have independent arbitrators within a fair procedure ruled by law. Either at Court of Arbitration for Sport, or at Swiss Federal Court or the European High Court."The International Olympic Committee disqualified Legkov and countryman Evgeniy Belov from the Sochi 2014 Games, where Legkov won 50-kilometre gold and relay silver, in connection with accusations of doping practices in the Russian team which included the tampering of samples.Four team-mates also expect IOC sanctions, with a ruling expected this week. The cases will then be dealt with by the ruling skiing body FIS which provisionally suspended the six athletes 11 months ago.The cases are based on reports from independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigator Richard McLaren who, however, did not single out individual athletes.Legkov and Belov are taking their case to CAS and their lawyer, Christof Wieschemann, has harshly criticised the IOC ruling.Legkov insisted he had never tested positive in countless tests, has trained outside the Russian team since 2011, and never took in a cocktail of doping substances or provided urine samples for manipulation purposes."In recent years I have been tested more than 150 times clean. Not tested in Moscow or Sochi because I was abroad, but in Cologne, Lausanne and Dresden," Legkov said.