MOSCOW, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Russian short track speed skater Victor An, a six-time Olympic gold medalist, has been excluded from the upcoming Pyeongchang Winter Games, Russian officials confirmed on Tuesday.

An, who was born in South Korea but took Russian citizenship before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, was "absent from the list of potential participants", vice president of the Russian Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov said in a statement.

Olympic champion biathlete Anton Shipulin and world champion skier Sergei Ustyugov were also absent from the list of athletes invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the statement said.

The absent sportsmen have "never been implicated in any type of doping affair and the numerous tests they have passed in their careers show that they are clean athletes", Pozdnyakov said.

"Today we will send the International Olympic Committee a request for the specific reasons why the captains of Russian teams in various sports have not been included in the list of potential participants," he added.