President of the Russian Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020.
โIt is a victory for Russia,โ Russian anti-doping agency acting CEO Mikhail Bukhanov said.
The most important part of the ruling, according to Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov, was the lack of any โextra criteriaโ for eligibility.
โClean Russian athletes can take part in the Olympics without any restrictions and do that on a team formed by the national Olympic committee,โ Pozdnyakov said.
When the โOlympic Athletes from Russiaโ team competed at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, it was only after the International Olympic Committee had vetted the athletes for possible connections to doping at the Sochi Games four years earlier.