‘A dark day for the Olympics’

Canadian luger Edney stands to lose bronze after Russian doping ban reversal

An international tribunal’s decision to overturn lifetime suspensions and reinstate results for 28 Russian athletes accused of doping is a low point for fair play in sport, says a Canadian athlete who stands to lose an Olympic bronze medal because of the decision.

Calgary luger Sam Edney didn’t mince words Thursday after learning about the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s ruling that sanctions against the athletes should be annulled and their individual results at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi be reinstated because of insufficient evidence.

“Above anything else, this is a very very very dark day for the Olympics,” Edney said via Twitter. “AND, this is a very very very dark day for Clean Sport ... if there is such a thing anymore.”

With just a week to go before the Pyeongchang Olympics, the 33-year-old Edney and teammates Alex Gough, Tristan Walker and Justin Snith are poised to lose what would have been Canada’s first Winter Games medal in luge.

The Canadians finished fourth in the team event four years ago in Sochi but learned in December they would likely be upgraded after Russians Albert Demchenko and Tatiana Ivanova were stripped of their results by the International Olympic Committee and received lifetime bans due to doping accusations.

Both Russians had their suspensions reversed and results reinstated by CAS on Thursday.

The IOC said it had taken note of the CAS decision “with satisfaction on the one hand and disappointment on the other” because of the impact it could have on the future fight against doping in sport.

“Afraid it may be the beginning of the end for Olympics ... if the IOC rolls over on this one,” Edney tweeted.

Pyeongchang will likely be Edney’s final Olympic appearance. He capped his World Cup career over the weekend with a sixthplace finish in the team race and a disappointing 31st in the men’s singles event in Latvia.

“It’s not the end to my World Cup career that I was looking for,” Edney said on Saturday. Nobody from the Canadian team or Luge Canada was available for comment Thursday. The Canadian Olympic Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Olympic gold medallist Beckie Scott, who serves as the chair of the World AntiDoping Agency’s athlete committee, said Edney has “every right” to be frustrated and called the CAS ruling a “massive setback” in the general fight against doping.