I started this thread to talk about skeleton, as that's what I know. But turns out there is more.
This is a pretty big deal.
Four Russian competitors from the Sochi Olympics were banned for life from the sport. This includes gold medalist Aleksandr Tretyakov and bronze medalist Elena Nikitina.
This is good news for American Katie Uhlaender (daughter of former MLB player) who would move up to bronze in women's skeleton and American Matt Antoine who could swap his bronze for a silver. Tomass Dukurs from Latvia would move from 4th to bronze, and his brother Martins moves from silver to gold - to complete his dominance of skeleton awards.
Skeleton athletes are extremely supportive of one another. Competitions are usually among people who have been friends for years. It's very telling that there is basically ZERO support for the Russian athletes from their fellow competitors. Everyone knew what was up, and it's exciting that this is happening. You still feel for the athletes that didn't get their moment on the podium, and I also feel for John Daly, who pushed his final run in Sochi to try and capture bronze, and popped out of the groove and dropped to 15th. I imagine he would have run his race differently if Tretyakov had been disqualified in 2014 instead of almost four years later.
In looking for another link on the subject to discuss whether the Oswald Commission will be getting serious with other sports, I see this banning more Russian athletes:
Olga Stulneva (bobsled)
Aleksand Zubkov (bobsled, gold 2-man & 4-man)
Olga Fatkulina (speed skating, silver 500m0
Aleksaner Rumyantsev (speed skating)
The commission is working to have decisions on all of the athletes under investigation prior to the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. Seems that Russia may be a bit light on experience once the games come.
This is a pretty big deal.
Four Russian competitors from the Sochi Olympics were banned for life from the sport. This includes gold medalist Aleksandr Tretyakov and bronze medalist Elena Nikitina.
This is good news for American Katie Uhlaender (daughter of former MLB player) who would move up to bronze in women's skeleton and American Matt Antoine who could swap his bronze for a silver. Tomass Dukurs from Latvia would move from 4th to bronze, and his brother Martins moves from silver to gold - to complete his dominance of skeleton awards.
Skeleton athletes are extremely supportive of one another. Competitions are usually among people who have been friends for years. It's very telling that there is basically ZERO support for the Russian athletes from their fellow competitors. Everyone knew what was up, and it's exciting that this is happening. You still feel for the athletes that didn't get their moment on the podium, and I also feel for John Daly, who pushed his final run in Sochi to try and capture bronze, and popped out of the groove and dropped to 15th. I imagine he would have run his race differently if Tretyakov had been disqualified in 2014 instead of almost four years later.
In looking for another link on the subject to discuss whether the Oswald Commission will be getting serious with other sports, I see this banning more Russian athletes:
Olga Stulneva (bobsled)
Aleksand Zubkov (bobsled, gold 2-man & 4-man)
Olga Fatkulina (speed skating, silver 500m0
Aleksaner Rumyantsev (speed skating)
The commission is working to have decisions on all of the athletes under investigation prior to the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. Seems that Russia may be a bit light on experience once the games come.