U.S. women’s hockey team, photo at right, beats Olympic Athletes from Russia
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – The only Russian hacking to be found Tuesday came from all the penalties their women’s hockey team had to take to stop the U.S. from getting to the front of the net at will. The only fake news was the idea that Russians actually had a chance.
The first head-to-head hockey meeting between Team USA and Team “Olympic Athletes from Russia” at these Games was a complete wipeout: a 5-0 American victory. More entertainment was provided in watching the four Russian cheerleaders in red track suits and a handful of fans hoisting “Russia In Our Hearts” signs grow more dejected with each U.S. goal than anything that actually took place on the ice.
And if that sounds like a gloating, ugly American who is tired of tapdancing around the sham that is Russia’s participation in these Games, well, guilty as charged.
From the moment Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spouted off a nonsensical conspiracy theory over the weekend on state-owned Russia-1 television station that the United States helped orchestrate the Russian doping scandal that got dozens of athletes banned from Pyeongyang, the last drop of sympathy over Russia’s awkward fortnight here went out the window.
“Part of this unfair competition, because the Americans apparently can no longer beat us in a fair fight,” Lavrov said according to Russia Today, another government-funded outlet, which translated the interview. “They believe that taking back and preserving uncontested leadership in global sports requires sidelining the competition.”
Uh huh.
Never mind the mountains of evidence of one of the biggest systematic doping operations of all time. Never mind the consensus in the independent anti-doping world and the international community that left no room for doubt about what Russia did. Apparently, according to Lavrov, it’s all one big ruse to pad the Americans’ medal count.
Well, at least we know one sport where the U.S. didn’t need any help.
The last time the Americans played Russia in women’s hockey in the 2010 Olympics, it was 13-0. So maybe the new narrative in Russia will be that the gap is getting closer. But in reality, not by much because without goaltender Valeria Tarakanova making a couple impressive pad saves in the first and second periods when it was 1-0, this would have been a whole lot worse.
That’s how badly the U.S. team was outskating Russia.
“We were very focused going into the game,” U.S. coach Robb Stauber said. “We’re a team that can sometimes look pretty and look good, but man, that’s fine, but the end result is we have to get more pucks to the net.”
And that was after a 5-0 win, mind you.
If Lavrov’s accusation was meant to fire up the Russians in advance of playing the U.S., well, it didn’t work very well.
But who knows what these young women actually believe, or what they know?
“I’m not going to answer those questions,” forward Lyudmila Belyakova said through interpreter Andrei Dolgov when I asked if she agreed with Lavrov’s accusation. “No comment.”
Fair enough. Probably best not to publicly disagree with one of the most powerful people at the Kremlin, given its track record in such matters. So let’s give the benefit of the doubt to these young women, who have come here wearing uniforms that aren’t their own – “Olympic Athletes from Russia” doesn’t really roll off the tongue – in circumstances that probably weren’t of their own making.
“We’re trying not to pay any attention (to the Russian scandal), and we feel that other players treat us as usual,” Belyakova said. “As if there’s no situation before the Olympic Games.”
But there was a situation, of course. And it was the fault of the Russian Ministry of Sport, not the United States. We should, at least the very least, be clear on that.
What’s less clear is why the Russians were allowed to be here at all, in position to play the games under a banner that fools no one.
A reporter asked Belyakova if, despite the IOC’s ham-handed attempts to strip away Russia from the Russians, she believed she was playing for her country here.
“No comment,” she said. Thank goodness for one night, at least, the scoreboard could do all the talking.