Six female Russian ice hockey players have been banned for life from the Olympics and the women's team disqualified from the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Tuesday.

The IOC said the athletes were sanctioned by a commission headed by Denis Oswald, which is looking into Russian doping practices at their home Games after a report from World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigator Richard McLaren.

Inna Dyubanok, Ekaterina Lebedeva, Ekaterina Pashkevich, Anna Shibanova, Ekaterina Smolentseva and Galina Skiba are those banned while the IOC also said a case against a seventh athlete has been closed without sanction.

At Sochi the Russian women won their qualifying group but were eliminated by Switzerland in the quarter-finals.

The IOC said a total of 46 cases have now been opened of which 33 have been heard.

Many Russian athletes, including disqualified cross-country skiing gold medallist Alexander Legkov, are taking their cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in a bid to overturn their sanctions and be allowed into the upcoming Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, February 9-25.

The IOC banned the Russian team from Pyeongchang but individual athletes, who can prove themselves free from doping, will be allowed to compete as neutrals.

On Tuesday the Russian Olympic Committee said it would offer backing to those athletes who intended to go to the Games, confirming there would be no boycott.