U.S slider to get '14 bronze

Doping penalties to Russians put 2018 hopeful on podium.

Katie Uhlaender has shed plenty of tears about how she was so close to an Olympic medal, so close to standing on that podium and watching the American flag get raised in her honor.

She cried again Wednesday. Those were happy tears.

The long- awaited word came down: Uhlaender is about to be an Olympic bronze medalist. The Inter- national Olympic Committee disqualified four Russian skeleton athletes from the 2014 Sochi Games, including men’s gold medalist Aleksandr Tretiakov and women’s bronze medalist Elena Nikitina, for doping violations and banned them from the games going forward.

“I understand that it was a difference of culture and that the Russians don’t believe they did anything wrong,” Uhlaender said. “But this was the only way to fix it.”

Tretiakov’s disqualification means Latvia’s Martins Dukurs will be promoted to gold, Matt Antoine of the U.S. to silver and Latvia’s Tomass Dukurs, Martins’ brother, to bronze. In the women’s race, Uhlaender moves up one spot from fourth, placing her alongside gold medalist Lizzy Yarnold of Britain and silver medalist Noelle Pikus-Pace of the United States.

“Changing medals, it’s good, i t’s great, but i t’s not life-changing for me to go from bronze to silver,” Antoine said. “For me, the biggest thing right now is justice. It feels like fifinally the people who didn’t play fairly, didn’t compete fairly, are getting what they deserved.”

The Russian doping saga isn’t over. Other medalists, including double gold winner Alexander Zubkov — now president of the Russian Bobsleigh Federation — remain under investigation related to the state-sponsored doping scandal that could keep Russia out of this winter’s Pyeongchang Games entirely.

No one is sure what exactly happens next. The IOC asked the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation to modify the Olympic results, which is a formality. Antoine likely will have to surrender his bronze medal since it’ll apparently be going to Tomass Dukurs, though he’s gotten no instructions regarding when or how to do that.

Uhlaender also hasn’t been told when she will get her medal. The IBSF said more information can be expected “within days.”

“The IOC taking a stand like this and doing the right thing has restored my faith in the system and the sport,” Uhlaender said. “I’m just even more motivated and honored to be a part of this movement and I want to be on that podium in Korea and prove it was not a fluke. I’m just overwhelmed right now. But this has defifinitely added fuel to my fifire.”

The sliders got the news while in Whistler, British Columbia, where the World Cup tour is this weekend. Antoine said he woke up to about 40 text messages and 10 emails; Uhlaender started getting voice mails, texts and emails at 5 a.m., and couldn’t fifigure out why. Tretiakov and Nikitina were both in Whistler as well, and Russian offifficials said appeals would be fifiled.

Nikitina is the World Cup women’s points leader after the fifirst two races. Tretiakov is fourth in the men’s standings.