The International Olympic Committee executive board on Saturday approved the 2020 Tokyo Olympics venues for the road cycling and race walking.

Tokyo organizers said the race walk will start and finish at the Imperial Palace Garden, while the road cycling will begin from Musashinomori Park in suburban Tokyo and end at the Fuji International Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The IOC executive board, however, did not have the opportunity to green-light football venues, with soccer's international governing body, FIFA, wanting to package the stadiums and match schedule in its final proposal to the IOC.

The 2020 organizing committee hopes to have the plans approved at an IOC executive board meeting in May, according to Tokyo chief spokesperson Masa Takaya.

Also on Saturday, the IOC said 15 of the 28 Russians whose suspensions for doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics were overturned on appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport will be sent to an independent review panel chaired by Valerie Fourneyron, the former French sports minister.

IOC communications director Mark Adams said of the 15, 13 are active athletes and two are coaches. However, with the IOC having not yet received the reasons behind the CAS decision, it remains to be seen whether the 15 will be allowed to participate in the Pyeongchang Games, which open Friday.

The IOC said it will appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal depending on the reasons CAS gives.

Adams defended the steps the IOC has taken throughout, starting from the very initial ban in December that booted Russia from Pyeongchang as a national Olympic Committee. Russian athletes can participate in Pyeongchang on an individual basis by invitation from the IOC.

"I think the fact that we have given individual athletes the right to compete is something that anyone who believes in democracy, liberty or freedom would agree with," he said.

"Seventy-five percent of those who will be competing here have never competed in an Olympic Games before. So they never competed in Sochi. We have given those invitations on the basis of a very, very strict process to try to find athletes who are clean and we wish to invite."

"Will it be a success? I think time will judge."

The IOC also said the quota of athletes in weightlifting will be reduced from 260 to 196 at the Summer Games following doping concerns. Adams added the slots for boxing will also be reviewed.