MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will take steps to defend the interests of its athletes who were disqualified and stripped of their medals from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics for doping, the Kremlin said on Monday. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) this month annulled the results of 14 Russian athletes who competed in Sochi because of doping violations. They were stripped of their medals and banned for life from participating in future Olympics. The decisions followed an IOC investigation into allegations of state-backed doping among Russian competitors and sample tampering by laboratory and security officials at Sochi. Despite calls to cooperate with international bodies to help rid Russia of doping, the Russian authorities have never acknowledged any state role in the scandal.

Source: The Star November 27, 2017 10:00 UTC