The official, President of the Russian Tennis Federation, made the supposedly derogatory remark about the American siblings, who have collectively won 25 Grand Slam singles titles, on a television chat show in his home country, where he referred to the "Williams brothers".

He has since been fined $25,000 (£15,500/€20,000) by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and suspended for a year, while "contact" was made by the IOC Ethics Commission. 

Tarpischev, though, has insisted the comment was taken out of context and not intended as an insult, implying the subsequent reaction may have been deliberate and politically motivated. 

Speaking here, where the 127th IOC Session took place, the Russian, a special adviser on sport to his country's President Vladimir Putin, claimed he was "looking at the possibility of filing a lawsuit", although he added that he does not yet know who to lodge his appeal against.

Serena Williams (right), pictured with elder sister Venus at London 2012, has slammed the comments as "sexist" and "racist" ©Getty Images



"If I am going to make such a move then it will be in the US court, where I will be able to find out on what basis the sanctions were applied," he told ITAR-TASS news agency.

"The only thing not yet entirely clear, is against whom I sue, I'm just working on this issue.

"I translated the findings into English and sent them to the WTA but they did not accept them.

"The International Tennis Federation and IOC also said they would not look into the issue.