Americans want test standards

There was an offseason when U.S. skeleton athlete Katie Uhlaender got a knock on her door from drug testers 19 times in the span of a few weeks.

Sometimes they wanted blood. Sometimes they wanted urine. Often, they wanted both.

Uhlaender and other members of the U.S. skeleton team suggested Thursday that the rest of the world should follow the testing model employed by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

“I’d love if the global model adopted ours,” threetime U.S. men’s skeleton Olympian John Daly said.

“We get tested pretty strictly, as does Canada. We don’t care if our testing is strict. We just want the rest of the world to be like ours.”

Uhlaender finished fourth at the Sochi Olympics four years ago. When Russia’s Elena Nikitina was found by the IOC to have been part of the doping program, Uhlaender was expected to move up to Nikitina’s bronze-medal spot. But the CAS ruling essentially restored Nikitina’s medal.

“Mindblowing.I think initially when the IOC took such a strong stance to ban Russia and suspend the federation completely and strip the medals, it gave the athletes who are holding on to the spirit of sport hope and kind of strengthened our Olympic spirit. And then when CAS took that away, it did the opposite,” Uhlaender said.

“We’re holding onto an Olympic spirit that feels like it’s dying.”

Figure skating

Shoma Uno skated a nearflawless short program, the only stumble coming on his opening jump, and scored 103.25 points to give Japan the lead in the team competition. Patrick Chan of gold medal-favorite from Canada fell on both of his quads but rallied in the back half of his program to take third place. Nathan Chen of the U.S. was fourth after doubling a triple toeloop and quad toeloop and falling on his troublesome triple axel.

Slalom

One of American Mikaela Shiffrin’s main rivals in slalom is out of the Olympics after crashing hard in training and tearing a ligament in her knee. The Swiss ski team said 19-year-old Melanie Meillard ruptured the ACL in her left knee during a serious fall in practice on Thursday.

Elsewhere

Sports’ highest court has rejected appeals by 45 Russian athletes plus two coaches who were banned from the Pyeongchang Olympics. The International Olympic Committee had refused to invite the group of Russians, saying it had evidence of alleged doping in Russian sports. The Court of Arbitration for Sport handed down its rulings Friday, less than nine hours before the opening ceremony.