Seven Russian bobsledders and skeleton competitors, who were banned for life by the International Olympic Committee after being implicated in their country's state-backed doping scandal, were Thursday cleared to return to the World Cup but not the Winter Olympics.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said it does not have "the jurisdiction" to rule on an appeal by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) who sought their own provisional suspension on each of the seven athletes.

In November last year, seven Russians, including Alexander Tretiakov, a gold medallist at the 2014 Olympics and skeleton bronze medallist Elena Nikitina, were disqualified from the Sochi Games.

The IBSF banned the athletes before the organisation's own doping panel lifted the provisional suspensions at the start of December.

IBSF officials then lodged a case at CAS to have the bans reimposed, an approach which was rebuffed on Thursday.

The seven can now take part in the World Cup but are still banned from the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month.

Source:AFP