IOC reinstates Russia after doping issues
Russia’s ban from the Olympic movement was lifted Wednesday despite two failed doping tests by its athletes at the Pyeongchang winter games.
President Vladimir Putin hailed the move during a Kremlin award ceremony for Olympic athletes, saying “we must turn this page.”
“We must draw relevant conclusions for ourselves, but I hope that international organizations also will eventually understand that sports must be kept away from problems unrelated to it,” he added.
The decision by the International Olympic Committee appears to be an attempt to draw a line under the state-concocted doping scandal that tarnished the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. The IOC allowed more than 160 athletes it determined were clean in Sochi to compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” in Pyeongchang earlier this month with a prohibition on the national anthem or flag in venues.
“You can take away any attributes, but you can’t take away our character, and you have proven it with your performance,” Putin said after giving state awards to Olympic athletes in the Kremlin. “It has filled us all a sense of pride.”
He referred to members of the Russian ice hockey team performing the national anthem after receiving the Olympic gold, saying he would like to thank them for their patriotism.
Russia’s hopes of marching under its flag at Sunday’s closing ceremony in South Korea were stymied by the two positive tests for banned substances, including a curler who had to forfeit his bronze medal. But the IOC said Wednesday all remaining test results were negative, clearing the path for Russia’s return to the Olympic fold.
Russian athletes won two gold medals in Pyeongchang, in figure skating and ice hockey, along with six silver medals and nine bronze.
“We put all our souls into that,” figure skater Yevgenia Medvedeva, who won Olympic silver, said at the Kremlin award ceremony.
Vitaly Smirnov, the head of an anti-doping commission set up by Putin, did acknowledge “we have a long way to go to get rid of the mistakes, which we made in the past.”
But Russia continues to deny there was state involvement in the plot, which included urine samples in supposedly tamper-proof bottles at the 2014 Olympics being swapped out for clean samples through a “mouse hole” in the wall at a laboratory in Sochi.
The IOC decision to reinstate Russia has no bearing on the International Paralympic Committee’s earlier ruling to maintain the country’s ban. The only Russians at the March 8-18 Pyeongchang Games will be known as “Neutral Paralympic Athletes,” mirroring the IOC’s compromise.
Head of U.S. Olympic Committee resigns
Scott Blackmun resigned as chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee on Wednesday, stepping aside so he can tackle his worsening bout with prostate cancer and to allow the federation to move forward under new leadership to address the sex-abuse scandal that has rocked gymnastics and other sports. The 60-yearold CEO was diagnosed with prostate cancer in January and did not attend the Pyeongchang Games.
Blackmun leaves as calls for his ouster were growing louder — from two U.S. senators and, more notably, from a number of gymnasts and other athletes who said neither he nor the USOC at large reacted properly to cases including those involving Larry Nassar, the doctor who sexually abused members of the U.S. gymnastics team. The USOC is conducting an independent review of when Blackmun and others learned the details about abuse cases at USA Gymnastics and whether they responded appropriately.
Susanne Lyons, a member of the board, will step down from that position and serve as acting CEO while the search for Blackmun’s replacement begins.