A Russian curler who passed rigorous vetting to attend the Winter Olympics was hit by a drug case yesterday, raising questions over the testing program and the move to let Russians compete, despite systemic doping.
Alexander Krushelnitsky, who won bronze in the mixed doubles curling with his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova, was the subject of a new procedure at the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) anti-doping division.
The case could have wider repercussions — Olympic officials are to decide this week whether to lift a ban on Russia and let them march behind their national flag at the closing ceremony on Sunday.
Photo: AFP
Krushelnitsky was one of 168 athletes passed as “clean” and allowed to compete as neutrals after a targeted testing program over several months, but it emerged that he failed his A and B test samples, and CAS is now to decide if there has been a violation and possible sanctions.
A source close to the matter said the case involves meldonium, which increases endurance and helps recovery.
Tennis star Maria Sharapova served a 15-month ban after testing positive for meldonium in 2016.
Russia were banned as a team from the Olympics in December last year after investigations revealed an extensive doping plot culminating at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, where the hosts topped the medals table.
Elsewhere, Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir smashed the short dance world record as French rival Gabriella Papadakis suffered “my worst nightmare” with a wardrobe malfunction.
As Virtue and Moir glided, twizzled and spun their way to a best-ever score of 83.67, Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron performed stoically in the face of the embarrassment of her dress becoming unclipped early in their routine, exposing a breast.
“It was pretty distracting, my worst nightmare at the Olympics,” 22-year-old Papadakis said. “I felt it right away and I prayed. I told myself: ‘You have to keep going’ and that’s what we did, and we have to be proud of ourselves, delivering a great performance with that happening.”
A great performance it was with the Olympic debutants’ samba-rhumba-samba to two Ed Sheeran hits earning them 81.93 to go into today’s free dance final just behind the Canadians.
Lying in the bronze medal position were US duo Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue.
On Sunday evening in the speed skating, Taiwan’s Huang Yu-ting finished 22nd out of 31 competitors in the women’s 500m.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier