Four Russian skeleton athletes were provisionally suspended by the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federations for allegedly doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The federations said on December 30 that they took action after being informed by the International Olympic Committee that investigations had been opened into the athletes.
The federations did not identify the athletes, but the R-Sport website said they are 2014 men's gold medallist Aleksandr Tretyakov, Olga Potylitsina, Maria Orlova, and Elena Nikitina, who was a bronze medalist in women's skeleton at Sochi.
The announcement follows the publication earlier this month of a second World Anti-Doping Agency report which detailed state-backed cheating in Russian sport that included swapping athletes' tainted samples for clean urine through the testing laboratory at Sochi.
The federations said the Russian Bobsleigh Federation was cooperating in the investigation of the suspended athletes.
But TASS reported that Russian federation President Alexander Zubkov expressed "disagreement" with the decision.
