I.O.C. Clears Nearly 400 Russians to Compete in Winter Games

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The Russian Olympic team has been barred from competing in the coming Winter Games because of a doping scheme that corrupted several Olympics and many other major international events. But when the Games begin next month in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Russia’s representation could be as strong as ever.

When they barred Russia last month, Olympic officials left a side door open for athletes who could prove they were clean. On Friday, in a statement about the results of that opaque, monthlong review process that scrutinized aspiring Russian Olympians, the International Olympic Committee said it had provisionally cleared nearly 400 Russian athletes to compete at the 2018 Winter Games.

The I.O.C. invited Russia’s suspended Olympic committee to propose which athletes of that group would occupy Russia’s earned competition slots at the Games. At the last Winter Games, in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, it named 232 athletes to its team.

Olympic officials on Friday declared 111 Russian athletes ineligible and said the approved athletes would be required to fulfill certain additional broad conditions, “such as further pre-Games tests and reanalysis from stored samples.” Frustrating some global antidoping officials, the I.O.C. did not publish the names of the approved athletes, their drug-testing histories, or the specific criteria used to assess the group.

“More than 80 percent of the athletes in this pool did not compete at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014,” the International Olympic Committee said in the statement, referencing the event at which Russia executed an elaborate overnight cheating operation. “This shows that this is a new generation of Russian athletes.”

Paul Melia, Canada’s top antidoping official, called that statement naïve. “In the face of evidence of a state-run doping program going back to at least 2011, to think that overnight there’s a new generation of Russian athletes ready for the Olympics?” he said.

Thomas Bach, president of the I.O.C., has said Russia’s cheating displayed an “unprecedented level of criminality.” Mr. Melia said the I.O.C.’s actions were unlikely to deter similar such cheating. “If you wanted to send a strong message that this is absolutely unacceptable, you’re not going to let their athletes come to the next Games,” he said.

The I.O.C. sought to emphasize the wrongdoers it had indeed excluded. None of the approved athletes were among those disciplined by the I.O.C. for doping in Sochi, and none have been suspended for a doping violation in the past. Each athlete’s candidacy was considered anonymously, according to Olympic officials.

Beyond being declared clean by the I.O.C., Russian athletes will need to have qualified for the Games by the standards of their respective sports. As qualifying events continue before Jan. 28 — the deadline by which athletes must be registered for the Games — the I.O.C. said Friday that it was impossible to estimate the number of Russian competitors.

Still, the generous pool established Friday makes it likely that the number could rival the size of Russia’s delegation in Sochi — or even surpass it.

In Pyeongchang, Russian athletes will technically compete under the Olympic flag, with no Russian emblems identifying them or appearing at the opening ceremony on Feb. 9. Nonetheless, Russian athletes and officials have expressed pride that their athletes will be referred to by the acronym OAR: Olympic Athlete from Russia.

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Antidoping officials from more than 20 countries have called the level of public detail about the I.O.C.’s evaluation process insufficient, requesting on Thursday that Olympic officials publish specific criteria in light of the I.O.C.’s own statement in 2016 that Russian athletes ought to be presumed tainted by their system and required to prove themselves innocent.

The I.O.C. said Friday that the soonest it could publish the names of the athletes invited to compete would be Jan. 27, following an I.O.C. meeting on the matter to be held in Pyeongchang that day.

Legal appeals, too, are to be considered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has 39 hearings related to Russian doping scheduled ahead of Pyeongchang.

“As the qualification process is still ongoing and more preconditions have to be met by some of the athletes, it is still not possible to project how many athletes will participate in Pyeongchang,” the I.O.C. said.

“All of our decisions were taken by consensus of the panel for each individual athlete, all of which were reviewed anonymously,” Valérie Fourneyron, France’s former sports minister and the chairwoman of the I.O.C. review panel, said Friday. “This chosen group of Russian athletes have gone through the most rigorous testing worldwide.”