IOC's decision: (clean) Russian athletes can compete under neutral flag at PyeongChang Olympics

[Jammers]

Considering the amount of money Russia pays the IOC for them to actually get banned says that the doping offenses must have been at a level never before seen at the Olympic level.

 

[Carolla5501]

Putin was very clear. This is humiliating and no Russian will be in Pyeongchang

Based on his words. He said it would be total humiliation so how would he endorse Russia being humiliated?

YOu know it's time to add another person to the ignore list. Your posts add nothing and just seem to be designed to support Putin.

From the NY Times (which is probably more reliable than Caseyedwards on here)

"His spokesman (Putin's), Dmitri S. Peskov, has said no boycott was under discussion before the announcement, however, and the news broke late in the evening in Moscow when an immediate official reaction was unlikely."

So we wait and see.

 

[Braulio]

So if we follow this from the process to chose which athletes will be able to compete:

• 
  
  
  • 1. Athletes must be considered clean to the satisfaction of this panel:
       • Athletes must not have been disqualified or declared ineligible for any Anti-Doping Rule Violation

That means NO Bobrova/Soloviev because of their disqualification given the Meldonium issue in 2016????

 

[Sylvia]

Figure skater Medvedeva said that the issue of her participation in the OI-2018 will still be discussed:
https://rsport.ria.ru/olympic_games/20171205/1129655908.html

Google translation:

Two-time world champion in women's singles skating Russian woman Yevgeny Medvedeva said that the question of her participation in the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang will still be discussed.

The IOC Executive Committee on Tuesday decided to disqualify the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), while "clean" Russian athletes will be able to perform at the Games-2018 under the Olympic flag.

"I will go to the Games, it will be still discussed, and it's too early to ask such questions," Medvedev told reporters. "We did our best, I'm glad that I could be here and say my little speech." I hope my speech produced that effect , which was needed, I hope that everything will be fine. "

"Of course, I want to go to Korea," - added the figure skater.

Text of Medvedeva's speech delivered in front of the IOC Executive Board earlier today: https://rsport.ria.ru/blog_rian/20171205/1129656039.html

Google translation:

Dear President, dear members of the Executive Committee!

I am honored to be here today. Thank you for the opportunity to address you on behalf of Russian athletes.

I have until the last moment tried not to pay attention to the negative news related to Russian sports. I thought that we, the "clean" Russian athletes, had nothing to worry about. If someone really committed anti-doping rule violations, we certainly do not have anything to do with this.

In 2014, I was 14 years old. I have not even entered the adult national team of my country. For me personally, Pyeongchang should be the first chance to plunge into the unique atmosphere of the Olympic Games. I do not understand why I and my Russian teammates can lose this chance.

I took part in many different tournaments and I'm terribly proud of my two world title titles. But the Olympics is a dream! Everyone has dreams, and you probably already had a chance to fulfill your own. Let me do the same! I do not know if there will be other Games in my sports life after Pyeongchang.

I always believed that the opportunity to compete at the Olympics should be fought on the ice. Unfortunately, now I understand that I can lose this chance because of circumstances that do not depend on me in any way.

I can not accept the option that I would compete in the Olympic Games without the Russian flag as a neutral athlete. I am proud of my country, it is a great honor for me to represent it at the Games. It gives strength and inspires me during the performances.

In addition, for me both personal and team tournaments are equally important at the Olympics. If I perform without a national flag, I will not be able to compete in the team. At the same time, my other rivals will have this opportunity. The Olympic Charter states that all athletes should have equal opportunities. And in this case there can be no question of equality.

Dear members of the executive committee! I promise you that if I play at the Olympics in Pyeongchang, I will do my best not to disappoint you and adequately represent your country and the Olympic movement as a whole. Thank you for attention!

ETA - thanks to @Ka3sha for this link to her talking to reporters afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua5YjrY7QOA

 

[BlueRidge]

So if we follow this from the process to chose which athletes will be able to compete:

• 
  
  
  • 1. Athletes must be considered clean to the satisfaction of this panel:
       • Athletes must not have been disqualified or declared ineligible for any Anti-Doping Rule Violation

That means NO Bobrova/Soloviev because of their disqualification given the Meldonium issue in 2016????

Someone posted earlier about this, they were given amnesty or some such, that is reinstated and not considered to have been disqualified. So yes they will be able to compete.

 

[allezfred]

Bobrova was exonerated.

 

[skatingguy]

So if we follow this from the process to chose which athletes will be able to compete:

• 
  
  
  • 1. Athletes must be considered clean to the satisfaction of this panel:
       • Athletes must not have been disqualified or declared ineligible for any Anti-Doping Rule Violation

That means NO Bobrova/Soloviev because of their disqualification given the Meldonium issue in 2016????

I think we've discerned that it will not.

WADA granted amnesty to all the athletes who tested positive to Meldonium prior to Mar 1, 2016 because the drug stays in the body for much longer than anyone realized.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/dopi...ada-announces-meldonium-amnesty-idUKL3N17G2SK

No. There was a similar ban prior to Rio for Russians who had doped but that did not apply to those caught in the meldonium conundrum. An example is the Russian artistic gymnast Nikolai Kuksenkov who tested positive and then had it revoked like Bobrova. He competed in Rio and won a silver medal with the team.

 

[Seerek]

Based on World Cup results this season, most of the medal contenders from the neutral delegation (except for maybe Stolbova/Klimov, Yuskov or Ustiugov) didn't compete in Sochi.

 

[VGThuy]

As a skating fan, I hope this doesn't dampen the GPF too much. This decision was just announced and I'm sure the Russian and probably other skaters will be asked to speak about it. Plus, emotions must be raw for the Russian skaters as well.

 

[caseyedwards]

YOu know it's time to add another person to the ignore list. Your posts add nothing and just seem to be designed to support Putin.

They don’t support putin! Just saying what he said and what his point was! I was criticized for being anti Russian for posting a thread with the title that presumed exactly what would happen!

 

[WildRose]

This is a farce, I knew they wouldn’t do anything. The only message this sends is that if a country is powerful enough you can get away with it. Trump must love it, US will be getting into drug cheating big time now, and the Chinese will be totally on board. Sure, they will kill a few athletes with their experimental drug cocktails, and ruin the health of even more, but countries gain prestige from winning medals and corporations make money. The clean athletes of the world, the ones who don’t cheat, well they are out of luck.

 

[BlueRidge]

This is a farce, I knew they wouldn’t do anything. The only message this sends is that if a country is powerful enough you can get away with it. Trump must love it, US will be getting into drug cheating big time now, and the Chinese will be totally on board. Sure, they will kill a few athletes with their experimental drug cocktails, and ruin the health of even more, but countries gain prestige from winning medals and corporations make money. The clean athletes of the world, the ones who don’t cheat, well they are out of luck.

The Olympics aren't about the athletes. They aren't about sports either. Those are just pretexts.

 

[Carolla5501]

I don't think Putin is that stubborn actually. if a Russian athlete medals, everyone is still going to know that was a Russian athlete.

I actually think he will let them go so he can say "see doping was not why we won" every time one of them wins a medal.

 

[oleada]

I think this is a reasonable decision overall.

As a skating fan, I hope this doesn't dampen the GPF too much. This decision was just announced and I'm sure the Russian and probably other skaters will be asked to speak about it. Plus, emotions must be raw for the Russian skaters as well.

Yeah, it must be very tough to go out and skate right with all of this happening and potentially not being able to compete.

I'd like to think skaters are clean (and so far they have been) and I hope they do get to compete as neutral athletes.

 

[Ka3sha]

Could you please give the link to this briefing?

It was shown live on few main tv channels, I haven't seen a link yet
Will post it later

 

[overedge]

They don’t support putin! Just saying what he said and what his point was! I was criticized for being anti Russian for posting a thread with the title that presumed exactly what would happen!

I think Putin is quite able to make his point clear without your "explanations". Unless you have some direct contact with him, in which case you might not want to pick up any phone calls if the call display says "Mueller".

 

[Carolla5501]

He’s not paying 15 million for something he didn’t do. He won’t do anything he’s been ordered to do and won’t allow any Russians until ioc reverses all these decisions.


What Putin said In public means anything different would be a flip flop. He’s not going to flip flop so publicly so close to an election. I can’t remember another flip flop of his.

They don’t support putin! Just saying what he said and what his point was! I was criticized for being anti Russian for posting a thread with the title that presumed exactly what would happen!

Dang I didn't get to ignore CaseyEdwards before you posted more useless nonsense.

 

[Hindernisse]

From the speech of Alexander Zhukov, President of the Russian Figure Skating Committee:
https://rsport.ria.ru/olympic_games/20171205/1129643991.html

"As the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, I apologize for the violations of the anti-doping rules that have been committed in our country."

This is the apology Tomas Bach referred to in the press briefing.

 

[caseyedwards]

I think Putin is quite able to make his point clear without your "explanations". Unless you have some direct contact with him, in which case you might not want to pick up any phone calls if the call display says "Mueller".

People didn’t know putin said Neutral would be humiliation and destroy the Olympic movement. So I posted the Link. Also people didn’t no about the “no russia no games” campaign.

 

[caseyedwards]

Dang I didn't get to ignore you before you posted more useless nonsense.

You better get moving so you don’t see this too!

 

[giselle23]

This is a farce, I knew they wouldn’t do anything. The only message this sends is that if a country is powerful enough you can get away with it. Trump must love it, US will be getting into drug cheating big time now, and the Chinese will be totally on board. Sure, they will kill a few athletes with their experimental drug cocktails, and ruin the health of even more, but countries gain prestige from winning medals and corporations make money. The clean athletes of the world, the ones who don’t cheat, well they are out of luck.

Why do you say they didn't do anything? The Russians are completely banned. Maybe some athletes will compete--I hope so, actually-- but not under the Russian flag. The Russians will not field a team in the team event in figure skating. And Trump and the rest of the US government have nothing to do with the US Olympic team. US Olympics is privately funded. If there is cheating (which I do not expect), it won't be government-sponsored like it was in Russia.

 

[overedge]

People didn’t know putin said Neutral would be humiliation and destroy the Olympic movement. So I posted the Link. Also people didn’t no about the “no russia no games” campaign.

You have no idea whether people knew this already or not.

 

[caseyedwards]

You have no idea whether people knew this already or not.

No I do because a poster said they didn’t.

 

[Hindernisse]

TBH, I think IOC managed to find a very good solution for Russia. Name "Russia" is still included in the name of the team, clean Russian teams in various sports are allowed to participate...

 

[overedge]

No I do because a poster said they didn’t.

You know how much all the posters here know because of what *one* person said? Yarite. You just keep grasping at those straws.

 

[skateboy]

I think some of us owe @caseyedwards an apology.

 

[skatesindreams]

I think this is a reasonable decision overall.

Yeah, it must be very tough to go out and skate right with all of this happening and potentially not being able to compete.

I'd like to think skaters are clean (and so far they have been) and I hope they do get to compete as neutral athletes.

You've said what I feel, as well.

 

[ivagall]

Yes. It was from putin who said any neutral order would be humiliation and would damage Olympic movement severely

You keep repeating this over and over again like a mantra, but I have yet to see any actual link to Putin's words. It's been widely reported in media that Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia is not considering boycott of the games even if they have to compete under neutral flag...

 

[Areski]

But what happens if one wins a medal and there’s no Russian flag or gold and there’s no anthem and no flag. What do the Russians do? Mouthing the anthem or waving a flag gets the medal revoked? So extreme shame and humiliation is right there at the medal stand

There will be the ugly Olympic anthem played on if that's the case.

 

[Sylvia]

Google translation of Alexander Zhukov's quotes: https://rsport.ria.ru/olympic_games/20171205/1129656353.html

After our speeches, the executive committee discussed for another two hours, I think that the decision was taken directly at this meeting, there were many alternatives for this decision: from a complete ban to those that were adopted." This decision has no precedent in the Olympic history. But I think that Zhenya's (Medvedeva's) performance played a role, all Russian teams are allowed to participate, all our teams will be able to participate, "Zhukov told reporters.

https://rsport.ria.ru/olympic_games/20171205/1129659148.html

"This decision took into account the interests of athletes to the maximum?" So it is, "Zhukov told journalists.

(Alexander Zhukov is one of the Russian officials who has been suspended "as an IOC Member, given that his membership is linked to his position as ROC President.")