Stolbova and Bukin out of the Olympics!

[Kevin]

Wow! I wondered if this would happen. I know there were vague references to a pairs team in the Sochi scandal.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olym ... t&utm_term

[Elizabeth]

The IOC has not said specifically why these two skaters are not on the list of those to be invited which was returned by the IOC to the Russian Skating Federation. It is the latter federation that has released (leaked?) this information, days ahead of the full announcement of the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) team by the IOC. The Russian Federation has said it will "immediately start fighting to restore a fair attitude toward Russian figure skaters and defend the honor and dignity of our athletes in all possible ways".

Russian athletes don't have to have been found doping to be denied competing in this Olympics. The criteria they have to meet to be invited to the OAR team are all about proving they are clean without involving the tainted labs. So one of them is to have a certain amount of tests done at labs not controlled by Russia/Russian sports feds. You can be clean but not able to prove it according to the stated criteria. One issue can be related to random testing where an athlete provides a location where they will be on a specific date to meet the tester - if they are not there when the tester arrives, this is reported to their "biological profile" on the database.

The full list of Athletes from Russia to be invited is scheduled to be released by the IOC in a few days (27 January); more information may be available at that time.

[Elizabeth]

There continue to be many twists and turns, unknowns, etc. in this story and that of the full team of Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR).

The Russians talk about the possibility of appeal (perhaps through the Court of Arbitration in Sport/CAS) up to Feb. 5th, specifically for Ivan Bukin. The figure skating team is heading to Japan to train in advance of the Olympics. They seem to have accepted that Stolbova (& Klimov) are out but plan on Stepanova & Bukin going to the training camp, just in case.

There was a press release earlier today naming the first alternates in pairs and dance as part of the revamped team. Then the Russian Olympic Committee said there would be no replacements for athletes not invited.

..in solidarity with those athletes who can not participate in competitions, weaker athletes can not occupy their seats...

Meanwhile the OAR team is said to consist of 169 clean athletes to receive invitations from the IOC: http://tass.com/sport/986948

Each of them may choose not to accept their invitations.

Stay tuned...

[Elizabeth]

The latest news appears to be that the appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) has been abandoned but there is an attempt to do something in Swiss civil court. In the meantime, I hear that neither of the teams are going to the training camp in Japan but I believe that the previously named 1st alternates are going instead.

All of this appears to only apply to the Olympics and one would expect that the teams would still be able to compete at Worlds.

[happyheini]

What a tangled web. I guess we will have to wait and see who shows up at the actual event. Of course we are mostly interested in skating, but there are so many other disciplines where the Russians used to take top honours as well.

[fred]

It's very sad and very unfair. I heard of a Russian skierwho is being barred and he's never failed a drug test in his life. There is just no basis for anything like this. It's extremely political, even more so than usual. Medals won't mean as much if many of the best competitors are not allowed to compete.

[Elizabeth]

It's very sad and very unfair. I heard of a Russian skier who is being barred and he's never failed a drug test in his life. There is just no basis for anything like this. It's extremely political, even more so than usual. Medals won't mean as much if many of the best competitors are not allowed to compete.

I'm sure that there may be some other stories like the one you mention, Fred, but we likely will never know all the details. Some cases will be even sadder than others.

Throughout the history of the Olympics there have been others (both winter and summer) where the results are said to be "asterisked" due to countries not participating for one reason or another - boycotts/bans/etc.

Based on the proven state-sponsored doping and efforts to cover it up, the IOC considered barring Russia from competing altogether but later determined that "clean" athletes should not be penalized because of what their government did and would , therefore, be invited to compete as neutral "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR).

The criteria established by the IOC for these "clean" athletes are not limited to those who have failed a drug test. As I've already posted above:

Russian athletes don't have to have been found doping to be denied competing in this Olympics. The criteria they have to meet to be invited to the OAR team are all about proving they are clean without involving the tainted labs. So one of them is to have a certain amount of tests done at labs not controlled by Russia/Russian sports feds. You can be clean but not able to prove it according to the stated criteria. One issue can be related to random testing where an athlete provides a location where they will be on a specific date to meet the tester - if they are not there when the tester arrives, this is reported to their "biological profile" on the database.

[kittykins]

I believe a lot of the cheating in winter sports is among the skiers, particularly cross-country. I don't know if that had anything to do with the decision. Becky Scott had a lot to say about this when she "won bronze" in the Olympics. She talked about how drugs have taken over her beloved sport. Later, she turned out to be correct as both the gold and silver medalists were found to be on steroids and she was awarded the gold medal later. However, she was robbed of her Olympic moment. Perhaps there is more behind the person banned...it could have more to do with his sport and who is connected to him within the sport. Certain coaches can be found to be giving drugs to athletes against their knowledge for instance.

[fred]

I believe the skier I was talking about had many tests, (over 20), in the past year and a half and none of them were through the Russian agency. All showed he was clean 100% of the time. Banned. That's pure politics. Secret Service agencies are running more ofthis show than the athletic commissions and the IOC.

[Kevin]

Most of these doping suspicions/allegations date back to Sochi 4 years ago. A clean drug test today (or in the past year and a half) does not indicate that the athlete was clean 4 years ago during the Sochi Olympics.

Russia was given a list of conditions they had to meet to be reinstated, along with a deadline to meet these requirements. They have had 3+ years to meet these conditions, yet have failed to do so. One of these requirements was to allow WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) access to the stored urine samples from RUSADA (Russian Anti-Doping Agency) to prove that they had not been tampered with. One would think that if there had not been a tampering scheme, those samples would have been readily turned over to prove their innocence. Instead, they have been withheld, which is what lead to the ban by the IOC. Russia could have cleared this up a very long time ago, but instead they chose not to meet the conditions for reinstatement.

We will never know all the details of each individual athlete's case, or likely the extent of what was done (or not done), and how. What we do know, is that there was a clear process laid out to Russia (and available publicly) which Russia did not follow. This was given due process.

[Elizabeth]

Exactly

[fred]

It's all political. Russia hasn't spent the last year and a half trying to smear the U.S. The U.S. *has* been doing that to Russia. This is just more of the same campaign. The athlete I've been talking about have *never* tested positive for a drug test, anytime. They are innocent and victimised.

[Elizabeth]

Sorry, Fred, but I come here to talk about skating and skaters, not politics.

I'm sure we all have our beliefs and concerns about many things. There are also many things that we do not know enough about.

I will not discuss this further here.

[happyheini]

Yes, skating is why we are long time members of this board. It seems we have flogged this horse to death and we should move on.