More bad news for Russians
Latest doping rulings add to calls for ban
As four more Russians were disqualified Friday for doping at the Sochi Olympics, IOC president Thomas Bach signalled a possible shift toward barring the country’s athletes from PyeongChang 2018.
Two-time bobsled gold medallist Alexander Zubkov, who carried the Russian flag at the opening ceremony in Sochi, was removed from the 2014 records in the latest round of verdicts from an International Olympic Committee panel prosecuting individuals caught in a program to cover up doping and tamper with tainted samples.
Now the president of the Russian bobsled federation, Zubkov was disqualified and banned for life from the Olympics along with speedskater Olga Fatkulina, who won silver in the 500 metres.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Zubkov told The Associated Press, saying he plans to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and has no intention of stepping down.
“I was working toward those medals for years. All my achievements, all my victories have always been and remain clean,” Zubkov said. “Sport has turned into politics.”
Russia originally topped the medals table in Sochi, but the latest cases drop it to nine gold medals, fewer than Norway and Canada. In total medals, Russia now has 24, behind the United States, Norway and Canada.
Fourteen Russians have been disqualified this month.
Zubkov said the ruling was the work of “a commission which makes decisions without any basis or proof.”
Hours earlier, Bach — highlighting that Olympic medallists were involved in attacking the integrity of the games — told critics not to put pressure on his executive board before a key decision next month on Russia’s participation at the PyeongChang Games.
Bach will chair an IOC board meeting Dec. 5 that could ban Russia’s team from PyeongChang because of state-sponsored doping at the Sochi Games.
Long seen as Russia’s ally, Bach seemed to confirm that position this month when he criticized “unacceptable” demands for a total ban while two Olympic panels investigate an alleged doping conspiracy.
However, in a speech Friday, Bach cautioned against those “from whichever side” who seek to influence the IOC.
“Some may try to build pressure. They will be wrong,” he told European Olympic officials at a meeting in Zagreb, Croatia.