The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday upheld the appeals from 28 Russian athletes who were given lifetime Olympic bans for doping violations.
The appeals came after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled 43 competitors guilty of doping violations and gave them a lifetime ban from Olympic Games, as well as annulled their Sochi 2014 results.
CAS said that in the 28 cases, the sanctions imposed by the IOC on the athletes had been annulled due to insufficient evidence and their results at the Sochi Olympics had been reinstated.
CAS also confirmed that anti-doping violations had been committed in 11 other cases but reduced the life bans from the Olympic Games to a ban from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
