Russian gold-winning bobsledders banned for Sochi doping

Five more Russian competitors from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, including two gold medallists, have been banned for life over anti-doping rule violations, the International Olympic Committee said on Monday.

They include Alexei Negodailo and Dmitrii Trunenkov, both members of the gold-medal winning four-man bobsleigh team. Two-time Sochi Olympic bobsleigh champion Alexander Zubkov was previously disqualified by the IOC.

Biathlon relay silver medallists Yana Romanova and Olga Vilukhina, who also won another silver in the 7.5 km event, and skeleton athlete Sergei Chudino round out the five athletes banned on Monday.

The latest bans bring the total number of Russian athletes suspended from the Games for life to 19 this month, with the IOC annulling results following widespread doping and tampering with samples of Russian athletes during the Sochi Games.

The Russian Bobsleigh Federation said in a statement the decision to disqualify Negodailo, Trunenkov, and Chudinov was "the height of injustice" that lacked legal basis, and promised to contest it in court. All five were also banned from all Olympics, the IOC said in a statement.

The Olympic body is re-testing all Russian athletes' samples from those Games following revelations by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Moscow's discredited anti-doping laboratory, of a scheme to cover up home competitors' positive samples.

The Sochi scandal is part of a broader doping affair that has led to the suspension of Russia's anti-doping agency RUSADA, its athletics federation and Paralympic Committee.

The IOC has said it will decide during its executive board meeting next month on the participation of Russian competitors at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea in February.