OFFICIALS still expect more than 200 of their athletes to compete at the Pyeongchang Games, despite the team being banned from the last Winter Olympics.
Under International Olympic Committee sanctions announced last week, all Russians must compete under the Olympic flag as “Olympic Athletes from Russia”.
After the organisation held a closed congress yesterday, ROC president Alexander Zhukov said: “Potentially, more than 200 athletes are in a position to qualify.”
The banning decision came after Russia was found to have run a sophisticated doping programme for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Zhukov said the Olympic committee unanimously voted for the athletes to compete despite the restrictions on the national team.
“The opinion of all taking part was united, and that was that our athletes need to go to South Korea, compete and win,” Zhukov said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin gave his backing last week.
The ROC will submit lists of its preferred athletes to the IOC, which will then issue invitations to Russian competitors.
Russian athletes going to Pyeongchang still need to pass a screening from an IOC committee which will examine their history of drug testing.
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