Putin will allow Russians to compete at Winter Games
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t boycott the Pyeongchang Olympics.
Putin said Wednesday his government will allow Russians to compete as neutral athletes at the upcoming games in South Korea.
The International Olympic Committee has banned the Russian team from games as punishment for doping violations at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The IOC, however, plans to invite individual Russians to compete under the Olympic flag.
“Without any doubt, we will not declare any kind of blockade,” Putin said in televised remarks after launching his reelection campaign at an automobile factory. “We will not block our Olympians from taking part if any of them wish to take part as individuals.
“They have been preparing for these competitions for their whole careers, and for them it’s very important.”
A Russian boycott would have been the biggest at any Olympics since the Soviet Union and its allies missed the 1984 Los Angeles Games. That itself was in response to the U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics four years earlier.
Putin also said Russia still did not accept accusations that it ran a state-backed doping system around the Sochi Olympics. He called the IOC ruling “politically motivated” and unfair “collective punishment.”
An IOC commission chaired by former Swiss president Samuel Schmid ruled Tuesday that there was a doping system but said it found no evidence that “the highest state authority” knew. However, it said of Yuri Nagornykh, the deputy sports minister at the time of the Sochi Games, “it is impossible to conclude that he was not aware” of doping coverups.
England achieves Champions sweep
England has become the first country to have five teams in the knockout stage of the Champions League after Liverpool completed a sweep for Premier League clubs with a 7-0 thrashing of Spartak Moscow.
Liverpool, which has won Europe’s top competition five times, clinched Group E after Philippe Coutinho secured his first hat trick for the club.
Liverpool was joined in the last 16 by former champion Porto, Sevilla and Shakhtar Donetsk.
Liverpool was one of four English teams to top a group, along with Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham. Chelsea completed the revival by English clubs. In other news:
• Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., joined the bid of Sacramento, Calif., for a Major League Soccer franchise as the four finalists made presentations to the league’s expansion committee in New York.
Sacramento and Nashville, Tenn., are considered the favorites to be awarded teams next month. Cincinnati and Detroit also are bidding.
Wilson, Ovechkin lift Caps to win
Tom Wilson had two goals and two assists, and Alex Ovechkin had a goal and three assists in the Washington Capitals’ 6-2 victory over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.
Braden Holtby made 37 saves to help the Capitals win for the sixth time in seven games.
The Blackhawks are 0-3-2 in their last five.