Russian goodwill suddenly flagging

Alexander Krushelnytsky, bronze medallist in mixed curling, failed a preliminary test for the banned drug meldonium, raising a host of questions

PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— Oh, Russia, you lovable scoundrels. If you had to bet on which sport Russia would test positive for during these Olympics — Games in which the International Olympic Committee had bent over backwards and sideways so extremely that they could qualify for freestyle skiing — you probably would not have picked mixed doubles curling. I mean, what are the odds?

Well, here we are. Alexander Krushelnytsky, the male half of the Olympic Athletes from Russia bronze medalwinning mixed doubles curling team, has reportedly tested positive for meldonium, a most infamous drug. His wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova, has not tested positive, which seems like an issue that needs to be worked out in counselling, if it comes to that.

Is this the funniest possible outcome of the IOC’s half-posteriored attempt to keep Russia in the Olympics, while all but making them wear the equivalent of false moustaches? Maybe.

The IOC kept saying its decision not to ban Russia entirely for its state-sponsored doping program was about protecting clean athletes, and about how this was a new generation of athletes.

“The final invited list will consist of clean athletes, so that neither Russia nor the Olympic movement will have to face any negative surprises,” said IOC president Thomas Bach on Jan. 24.

The IOC also said that if Russia was good during these Olympics, they could carry their flag at the closing ceremony, and the fix certainly seemed to be in. Well, whoops.

Look, there are undoubtedly clean Russian athletes here. There are undoubtedly dirty athletes here who compete for other countries. Sports is a giant grey area, and any nation can find itself elevated by victory, pending retesting over a period of 10 years.

And it is easy to dump on Russia. In Sochi we pointed out every single thing that went wrong: the doors to the press centre, the media accommodations, the other media accommodations, the faulty chairs in the media centre, the occasional sinkholes in the Olympic park, and the rampant human rights violations. We are pretty nitpicky, the media.

Meanwhile, Korea’s own charming imperfections are largely going unreported, because we know or at least assume their hearts were in the right place. Russia, having spent $51 billion U.S. in easily corruptible funds, was given less benefit of the doubt.

Also, they are likely not using their secret police to pass vials of urine through holes in the wall of the doping lab in order to execute a vast state-sponsored doping program. That we know of, at least.

But in Pyeongchang, the Russians were on track to get their flag and colours back for the closing. Four days ago Russian bobsledder Maxim Adrianov told the TASS news agency, “Bach told us that the IOC had no critical remarks to make on the way the Olympic athletes from Russia are abiding by the rules. He said that he was in constant contact with his subordinates and they are telling him that there are no claims whatsoever to the Russian athletes as they are meeting all requirements and everything is OK.”

And then, meldonium: that old bugaboo PED that the Soviets gave to soldiers in the invasion of Afghanistan and is supposed to alleviate stress, make the heart work, and even improve cognition. It was banned in 2016, but its most famous victim was tennis player Maria Sharapova. For a Russian to get popped for it in 2018 — I mean, this is like BTO playing “Takin’ Care of Business.”

“Not any benefits (in curling),” said Russian women’s coach Sergei Belanov. “And I don’t believe that a young man, a clever man, will use the same doping which was so big the last two years. It’s stupid. But Alexander is not stupid. So sorry, I don’t believe it.” Of his team, he said, “Girls don’t believe also.

(By the way, Russia will host the World Cup of soccer this summer, just as Russian doping architect and Netflix-available documentary Icarus star Grigory Rodchenkov tells The Associated Press that “Russian footballers were immune from doping-control actions or sanctions.” He said this from his hiding place in the United States where he is living in anonymity in order not to be murdered by, say, the Russian government.)

So here comes the mess. The B sample was scheduled to be tested on Monday, but it didn’t seem too likely that a false meldonium test would pop up. There is a report Krushelnytsky told Russian officials that he fears someone spiked his drink during training, which is not an impossible explanation: Earlier this year Japanese kayak racer Yasuhiro Suzuki was banned for exactly that.

And most of all, Russian chef de mission Stanislav Pozdnyakov told Reuters on Sunday that medals were not the most important thing here: he said, “We don’t have the issue of fighting for the first place as a team. Our main goal is to return home with the flag.”

Bringing the Russians here was always a sucker’s game for the IOC. The Paralympics banned the Russian federation, and the Russian Olympic Committee is still not compliant with the World AntiDoping Code because they have not accepted the conclusions of the WADA-commissioned investigations into doping, and that there are still samples at the Moscow laboratory that have not been released for testing. Russia arrived here defiant, because the IOC decided against truly serious punishment. What was it Canadian IOC member and former WADA head Dick Pound said at the IOC session to start these Games? “More attention has been made to get the Russian athletes into the Pyeongchang Games than with dealing with Russian conduct.”

Well, the IOC let the Russians in and held their breath. And they may have to deal with it, now.