Ban upheld, Russia won’t be in Closing Ceremony
The International Olympic Committee upheld its ban of Russia from the Olympics, denying the country the chance to march into the Closing Ceremony under its own flag. The vote came Sunday hours before the ceremony.
Russia was banned from the games after a massive doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but the IOC had left open the possibility of reinstatement.
IOC President Thomas Bach said a condition for Russia’s reinstatement was no further positive drug tests at these Olympics. Two of the more than 160 athletes competing as Olympic Athletes from Russia tested positive for banned substances, including a curler who had to forfeit his bronze medal. That’s half of the four doping cases at this year’s Olympics.
The positive tests come after the IOC had said Russian athletes had been “rigorously tested” months before the games — and during them.
“The IOC executive board decided first not to lift the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee for the closing ceremony,” Bach said, “therefore, no delegation of the Russian Olympic Committee will have taken part in these Olympic Winter Games.”
Hockey: Kirill Kaprizov scored in overtime as the Olympic Athletes from Russia beat Germany 4-3 for the gold medal.
Germany, in the final for the first time, was in position to win when Jonas Muller scored with 3:16 left in regulation for a 3-2 lead.
The Germans then got a power play when Sergei Kalinin went to the box for tripping with 2:11 left, but the Russians pulled their goalie for the extra attacker to keep it even strength. Nikita Gusev scored his second goal of the third period, firing a shot over goalie Danny aus den Birken’s right shoulder to tie it and send it into overtime.
Bobsledding: Germany is leaving the Olympics with gold medals in all three bobsled events.
Francesco Friedrich finished off the sweep for the Germans on Sunday, driving his four-man sled to victory on the final day of the games. Won Yunjong of South Korea and Nico Walther of Germany tied for second and shared the silver.
Not only did Germany win gold in all three bobsled events — matching its feat from Turin 2006 — but also became the first country to win six sliding gold medals at a single Olympics.
The rest of the bobsled, skeleton and luge world won four golds combined; Canada, Austria, South Korea and Britain all got one.
The top U.S. driver was Codie Bascue, who placed ninth.
Women’s curling: Sweden beat South Korea 8-3 to claim the gold medal with King Carl XVI Gustaf in the stands. The silver is Korea’s first Olympic curling medal.
Sweden took control of the match by stealing a point in back-to-back ends — the fourth and the fifth — even though South Korea had the last-rock advantage known as the hammer. After South Korea mustered just one point in the sixth, Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg delivered a takeout on her final rock of the seventh to score three points and open a 7-2 lead. U.S. outlook: The U.S. team is facing its worst medal haul in 20 years at a Winter Games. The U.S. Olympic Committee’s sports chief says he’ll take a hard look at what occurred to try to avoid a repeat. The United States had 23 medals heading into the final day of action. It will be the poorest showing since 1998, four years before a home Olympics in Salt Lake City sparked a renaissance for the country’s winter sports program. Auto theft: Canadian skicross competitor Dave Duncan, his wife and his coach were arrested and accused of taking a car in front of a bar and driving it while inebriated.
Coach William Raine was the driver and he allegedly had a blood alcohol level of .162, well above the local legal driving limit of .05.
They have been released from jail. A police spokesperson said the coach was fined about $4,600 for driving under the influence. The officer says the skier and his wife were each fined about $930 for theft. They must pay the fines before leaving the country. Next up: More than 50 years after it showed its postwar recovery off to the world at the 1964 Games, Tokyo is ready for another Summer Olympics. The Japanese capital has something else to prove at the 2020 Games. This time Japan wants to remind the rest of the world that China and South Korea haven’t left behind the first economic powerhouse in East Asia.