All 47 Russian athletes and coaches challenging a doping ban keeping them out of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics had their appeals rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday, the day of the opening ceremony.

Among the 47 subject to the ban stemming from state-backed doping at the 2014 Sochi Games was short track skater Victor Ahn, who was born in South Korea but became a Russian citizen in time for Sochi, where he won three gold medals.

"Today, the ad hoc division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed the application filed by 32 Russian athletes against the International Olympic Committee," CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said, reading out a statement. "It has also dismissed the application filed yesterday by 15 athletes and coaches against the IOC."

"The CAS arbitrators have considered that the process created by the IOC to establish an invitation list of Russian athletes to compete as Olympic Athletes from Russia could not be described as a sanction but rather as an eligibility decision."

"Although the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended, the IOC nevertheless chose to offer individual athletes the opportunity to participate in the Winter Games under prescribed conditions -- a process that was designed to balance the IOC's interest in the global fight against doping and the interests of individual athletes from Russia."

The World Anti-Doping Agency was delighted with the latest decision by CAS, saying it understood the degree of difficulty in "evaluating an unprecedented response to an extraordinary situation, that is, a state-sponsored doping scheme."

"These decisions come as welcome news for WADA, as they will for athletes and all others worldwide that care for clean sport and the integrity of the games," WADA President Craig Reedie said.

"The timing of these decisions just before the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang is good, as it will reassure athletes and others that only Russian athletes which have met strict anti-doping criteria will be participating in the games."

The aforementioned 15, including two coaches, were entering a second appeal after the IOC's invitation review panel decided not to invite them to Pyeongchang, even though CAS upheld their initial appeal on Feb. 1, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove they violated anti-doping rules.

On Friday, CAS again did not take questions from the media and still has yet to provide the reasoning for upholding the initial appeal in the first place.

Thirteen other Russians -- six athletes and seven members of their entourage -- had also appealed on Wednesday, but CAS, citing a lack of jurisdiction, decided not to hear them at all Thursday.