Not to start this argument again (and I very much want to see the Russian skaters in Beijing), but it's not because some athletes doped. It's because there was a state sponsored doping program. It's never been about individual athletes.
‘I need to lose a minimum of three kilos’: Olympic champ Zagitova on readiness to land quad
Reigning world and Olympic champion Alina Zagitova has revealed plans on adding extremely complicated quadruple jumps to her future programs, stressing that she needs to lose weight before attempting the move.www.rt.com
And yet Stolbova and Bukin were singled out. I am sure they were glad to hear that it wasn’t about individual athletes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the athletes to be singled out next time are Trusova, Kostornaya and Scherbakova, just to level the field a bit, because the decision seems to be quite political.
And yet the names related to doping in figure skating coming to my mind are very russian:
Bobrova didn’t do anything wrong. She took meldonium when it was allowed to do so. It wasn’t her fault that it stayed in her body longer than anyone thought. If you decide to ban something, you can’t start punishing people for taking it when it wasn’t banned.And yet the names related to doping in figure skating coming to my mind are very russian:
Berezhnaya
Larionova
Boborova
---
And more important, after the big doping scandal:
Shakun
Koshevaya (who skated at Universiade 2019)
And well, you know I love my russians, still
By that account every German can be linked as well since German also has a very illustrious past. Adding Bobrova was a very cheap shot.
Yes, I can imagine how much certain countries would like to ban all athletes from world championships. Even the ones who have never done anything wrong. If you can’t defeat them, just ban them! It must be easier to lobby for banning them than teaching their own athletes to land quads...
Btw, Stolbova/Novoselov withdrew from Golden Spin of Zagreb because they never showed up to the competition. I'm assuming she is still ill.
Que sera, sera? I thought T skates for Russia, so it should be ‘что будет то будет’ (shto budiet, to budiet).
I can't see Russia releasing them.Certainly if they do it will be well beyond the next Olympics.
It is very sad with no fair answers and no way to tell for sure as it was done, approved and covered up at the top level and they still refuse to release the stored tests so they cannot clear anyone as failed tests were misreported. Maybe if they offered Putin some special brilliant science award for the whole scheme which would never have been discovered had there not been a whistleblower instead of all the Olympic golds he would knock it off....but I doubt it. Unless they hand over all the documents and stores Russians cannot prove their innocence. I do think they should never be allowed to hold international sporting events within Russia so there cannot be systematic controls but I think at all events held other places Russians should be able to compete but the country holding the event has to step up systems and security around the testing and procedures so all the athletes know that all the blood, sweat and tears was not for nothing.Also WADA needs to send supervisory teams to all major events from several countries kept secret until practice day. Yes it will cost money but I think it is necessary. How about a GO Fund Me with strict donation limits.
5 minute video:
Russian athletes aren’t safe
No it is not an older quote. Zagitova said it with in last two weeks (I posted that link few pages back). She also seems to be still growing in height.. so the weight to height to muscle ratio is still tbd.
