Kiwi Winter Olympians ‘clean’ says NZ chef de mission

The New Zealand Olympic Committee is confident all its athletes at next month’s Winter Olympics are drug free and won’t be caught up in one of the biggest Olympic drug scandals.

Speaking on Wednesday morning before flying to PyeongChang, South Korea, to begin preparation for the games, New Zealand chef de mission Pete Wardell told that despite last year’s Russian drug scandal, he is confident the Kiwi athletes are clean.

The International Olympic Committee took action against Russia last month after acknowledging ‘‘systematic’’ cheating by its athletes at London 2012 and Sochi 2014 and outlawing its flag, uniform and anthem from PyeongChang 2018.

With Russia wiped from the schedule only Russian athletes found to be clean can compete as neutrals.

Wardell said NZOC fully supported the decision to ban Russia, and had full confidence this wouldn’t affect the preparation for the 20 New Zealand athletes heading to South Korea on February 1.

‘‘Essentially, it is nothing to do with us but we support what they do wholeheartedly. We believe we should all be competing on a level field and there should be no drug taking whatsoever.’’

Wardell said the Russians had been dealt with fairly and those competing as neutrals were highly likely to rake in the medals.

‘‘Some of these athletes who have proven themselves to be clean, they will turn out to be medal winners. They [Russia] are a very, very strong winter sport nation so we would expect these clean Russian athletes will be on the podiums.’’

New Zealand athletes are unlikely to compete against any of the ‘‘neutral Russians’’, with the exemption of the ice skaters and skeleton racers.

Russia did not have a heavy competitor base in events where New Zealanders are medal hopefuls, such as the snowboarding slopestyle events, or skiing halfpipe.

‘‘I don’t think it will really affect us too much at all.’’

Wardell is confident the Kiwi team abide by the regulations.

‘‘They know the rules backwards as to what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do.’’

The Winter Olympic Games run from February 9-25.

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