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Olympic body is forced to defend itself after Russian curler reportedly fails drug test
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Russian athletes were invited to compete at the Winter Games because the International Olympic Committee said they had been proved to be clean, and that the governing body for the Olympic Games felt other athletes would still be ensured of fair competition and a level playing field.
The IOC was forced to defend its decision to include Russian athletes in these Pyeongchang Games on Monday morning after curler Alexander Krushelnytsky reportedly failed a drug test, jeopardizing the bronze medal he won last week in mixed doubles and inviting increased scrutiny on the IOC’s handling of the situation.
Appearing at a news conference Monday morning in Pyeongchang, IOC spokesman Mark Adams declined to comment on the specific case but noted that a “very, very rigorous program” was established to determine which Russian athletes should be allowed to compete here.
“There was a sense from the IOC that we wanted individual athletes, if they could prove they were clean, to have the chance to participate in the Olympic Games. I think we would very much stick by that process, stick by that decision that athletes should not be judged as a group,” Adams said. “We should try to find a way — and we did find a way — to rigorously test them and provide a route for clean athletes to compete.”
Krushelnytsky reportedly tested positive for meldonium, which has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances since January 2016. Competing with his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova, Krushelnytsky won a bronze medal in mixed doubles curling Tuesday. The pair earned third place with a win over Norway, which would receive the bronze medal if Krushelnytsky’s failed drug test is confirmed by a B sample, according to a Reuters report citing an unnamed person close to the situation.
Adams said a B sample would be opened and tested later Sunday. Krushelnytsky has reportedly been stripped of his accreditation and has left the Olympic Village. Some expressed shock that he would test positive for meldonium, a drug used to treat heart disease and other chronic conditions in Russia and Eastern Europe, which resulted in global headlines when hundreds of Russian athletes tested positive for the drug in 2016, including tennis star Maria Sharapova, who received a two-year ban from her sport.
“I don’t believe that a young man, a clever man, will use the same doping which was so big the last two years. It’s stupid. But Alexander is not stupid,” Russian women’s curling Coach Sergei Belanov said Monday morning. “So, sorry, I don’t believe it.”
The drug is not approved for sale in the United States, and there is no clear explanation for how the drug can enhance an athlete’s performance, though it remains on the WADA’s banned list.