Absence of banned Russians to shift medals

Germany, Norway forecast to pick up most extra gold.

It’s still unclear how TOKYO — many Russian athletes will compete next month in the Pyeongchang Olympics, but a few things seem certain.

Athletes from winter powers such as Germany and Norway could pick up unexpected medals with some top Russians absent because of a massive doping scheme four years ago at the Sochi Games.

One medal forecast for Pyeongchang, compiled by Gracenote Sports, which refers to itself as a “sports

and entertainment pro- vider,” shows the impact if Russian athletes are missing.

Gracenote released its medal-table projection Wednesday, this time removing all Russians from the calculation. The U.S.-based com- pany said it would release a final prediction just before the Olympics open Feb. 9,

this time including Russians who are known to be eligible and who will compete under the name “Olympic Athlete from Russia,” or OAR.

The Russian Olympic Committee said in December “more than 200” ath- letes will meet the qualifying criteria. However, the final decision, barring appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, will be in the hands of an IOC commission.

Germany and Norway are the big winners without Russia. Gracenote forecasts Germany would win five extra medals, followed by Norway with four. Canada, France and Japan would pick up two extra medals. Finland, Britain, Italy and the Netherlands would get one each.

Germany’s extra haul would push its medal-lead- ing total to 40 — 14 gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze. Norway is next with 37 overall, but it would take 14 gold to tie Germany in that department.

Canada is predicted to take third place with 33 overall, followed by the United States (29) and France (24).

■ If Germany wins 40 medals, it would be the country’s most successful total since 2002 in Salt Lake City. Biathlon will net Germany’s largest haul with 10 medals.

■These could be record-setting games for Norway, which has never won more than 29 overall. Norway is forecast to win a whopping 19 medals in cross-country skiing alone.

■ Canada and the United States are forecast to win medals in 10 of the 15 sports at the Winter Games: alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsled, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, Nordic combined, short-track speedskating, skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, speedskating.

WINTER OLYMPICS Feb. 9-25, South Korea