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The International Olympic Committee announced another wave of sanctions from the Oswald Commission on Tuesday, banning six Russian women's hockey players for anti-doping rule violations and disqualifying the Russian women's hockey team from the 2014 Games.
Inna Dyubanok, Ekaterina Lebedeva, Ekaterina Pashkevich, Anna Shibanova, Galina Skiba and Ekaterina Smolentseva were all sanctioned by the IOC, while a case opened against a seventh athlete was closed without punishment. The six women's hockey players have been barred by the IOC from competing in future Olympics.
The Russian women's hockey team has also been disqualified from the 2014 Games in Sochi, where it won its preliminary group but lost to Switzerland, 2-0, in the quarterfinals.
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The IOC announced last week that it was suspending the Russian Olympic Committee, effectively barring Russia from competing in the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in two months. Russians will be able to compete as neutral athletes, however.
According to the IOC, the Oswald Commission has now opened 46 cases and heard 33 of them.
"More hearings concerning other athletes will be held over the next few weeks," the IOC wrote in a press release.
Twenty-two Russian athletes have already chosen to appeal the sanctions levied against them by the commission, and experts believe lifetime bans — like the ones issued to the six Russian women's hockey players Tuesday — are unlikely to stand.
Contributing: Rachel Axon
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.
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