Oswald was asked a series of questions at the IOC daily press briefing here on whether Valieva’s positive drug test, which has dominated headlines for the past week of the Games could be connected to the organisation’s response to Sochi 2014.

The Swiss official, who in 2017 had chaired the IOC Disciplinary Commission which investigated cases arising from that scandal, was asked whether tougher sanctions could have prevented this latest case and claims the claims the actions taken by the organisation have failed to serve as a deterrent.

Oswald insisted the IOC had taken “very harsh measures” against Russia in the wake of the Sochi 2014 doping scandal and that there was currently no connection with the Valieva case.

“It is not established that there is a relation between this single case and the doping state of 2014,” Oswald said.

“It seems to have no connection between the two.

“No such connection has been established so far.

“Do you have a country in the world where there is no single case of doping?

“I don’t think you have, no country is perfect.

“It is not the result of what we have done since 2014."

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) had been suspended from the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics by the IOC, with 168 athletes vetted by the International Testing Agency competing as part of the Olympic Athletes of Russia (OAR) delegation.

None of the athletes sanctioned by the Oswald Commission were cleared to compete at the Games.

The Commission had sanctioned 43 Russian athletes implicated in the Sochi 2014 scandal, however the CAS overturned sanctions on 28, meaning sanctions were lifted and results reinstated from the Games in Russia.

 A further 11 athletes had sanctions partially upheld, with a ban remaining in place for Pyeongchang 2018 but a life ban from the Games overturned.

Global Athlete, an athlete-led advocacy group, claimed yesterday that Valieva would not have been placed in this position had "the World Anti-Doping Agency, IOC, and CAS banned Russia from global sport".

The group claimed Russian had not been incentivised to reform, accusing sporting officials of "rebranding over banning".

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee claimed the decision by CAS not to reinstate Valieva's provisional suspension yesterday appeared to be "another chapter in the systemic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia.

Oswald defend the actions taken by the IOC, claiming they were proportionate and allowed clean athletes to compete.

"The Executive Board excluded the Russian Olympic Committee for the next Games [in Pyeongchang]," Oswald said.

"An exemption was made for the athletes who could prove they were not involved in the system or had anything to do with the state doping.

"We cannot punish clean athletes, that is what we tried to do.

"In 2017 we did the maximum we could do according to the law.

"The sanction, whichever sanction you take, it must be proportionate to the offence.

"We took the maximum punishment we could do in law.

"We suspended the athletes involved for the next two Games and this was overturned by the court, saying this is not proportionate to the offence.

"They limited the sanction, it was limited from one Olympic Games rather than two.

"We live in a state of law and we have respected the law."

The ROC suspension was controversially lifted immediately after Pyeongchang 2018, with several IOC members at the time expressing a desire to "draw a line" under the saga.

Russian athletes have since competed at Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 as the ROC, following a two-year package of sanctions introduced by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The sanction is part of the punishments for the "cover-up of the cover-up" of the manipulation of data at the Moscow Laboratory.

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