Olympic curling world stunned by Russian doping scandal

Alexander Krushelnitsky reportedly tested positive for a banned substance.
GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) — When word broke on Monday that a Russian Olympic curler was facing a doping charge, the curling world was floored. Not because of the tired cliche that curling isn't a real sport (and therefore, why would a curler need to dope?) But because doping goes against the very essence of what curling is all about.

The charge against Alexander Krushelnitsky, who won the curling mixed doubles bronze medal last week with his partner Anastasia Bryzgalova, stands in stark contrast to curling's noteworthy adherence to good sportsmanship, an ethos known as "The Spirit of Curling." The World Curling Federation's rules quite literally state that a true curler would prefer to lose than to win unfairly.

On Monday, Krushelnitsky's fellow curlers were trying to make sense of the scandal, with some openly questioning whether Krushelnitsky had been slipped a banned substance without his knowledge. Russian Curling Federation president Dmitry Svishchev said it was possible someone spiked Krushelnitsky's food or drink with meldonium, which was banned in 2016.

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Source: https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/olympic-curling-world-stunned-russian-doping-scandal

Thanks Trump... Just because of your ties to Russia and their meddling in the elections we got prevented from watching Russia as a team in the Olympics... This is a made-up scandal and is like a joke. They couldn't find any evidence but still banning Russian athletes. Just like they have no evidence but indicting our 13 nationals. No good.

 

How the **** can drugs, in any way whatsobloodyever, enhance someone's performance on the curling ice? Could it possibly be because the Russian competitors in all the other events were whiter than white, therefore the poor bloody curler had to take the rap?

 

You are blaming trump for what happened to the russians in the olympics.?

That is a very uniformed way of looking at it

 

I know right? They are mad at us because they knew our flag flying in Korea would have meant a positive image on top of an already positive Russian image, which would have caused a double positive image and that would have absolutely not been something the world's ready to take. That's why they just figured a way and banned us from the Olympics : ( Prostatutkas !

 

Who else should be blamed man? Come on yo...

If the dude didn't get himself into trouble with the damn FBI they wouldn't have indicted our guys over his sh.t...
Think a little deeper Sammy... Gaawwwwddd....

 

Wow

Racism and international political intrigue within the IOC in one neat little package

Who woulda thunk it?

 

No idea.

 

It's almost as though the infamous Sepp Blatter were still in charge of it all, except that there are no kick-backs involved? lol

 

I dont follow soccer so I had to look the name up

There are hugh soms of money in international sports

 

1. The initial mistake was for Russia to accept the decision that meldonium is a doping. This thing strengthens the heart in case of intense training. Every year some sportsmen (especially young) have a sudden death because of a heart attack. Medonium helps the heart to overcome the intense load of training. It doesn't make the muscles to grow or increase the reaction. If a sportsman doesn't train it won't help him comparing to a sportsman who did train. One of the characteristics of this meldonium is that its traces stays in blood much longer and can be found even if a person haven't taken any more of it recently.
2. Krushelnitsky was charged just because he won a bronze medal. The international sport got a deadly wound. The project of Olymics is dead for me. When it was the competition of athelets it was a pleasure to watch. Every victory had a human story staying behind it. Thus it was a very positive event. Nowadays it is only money and dirty political games. The idea of the Olympics was killed by haters of Russia and the people in Olympic committee who didn't have the courage and principles to take sport out of politics. Some part of the fault stays with those spectators who formed a demand for national pride basing on their athelets success. However the latter is natural and came of all the good intentions. Unfortunately these intentions are always bringing to hell...

 

So Hillary’s fake Trump Russia scandal is Trump’s fault?

 

They are investigating possible sabotage which will be based on another test since this substance taken once would leave the system in a couple of days.

Doesn’t make sense to take a long time banned substance for curling of all things.

 

How odd to blame trump for this

As if the Deep State is mad at him for pointing out FBI corruption and now incompetence so the CIA spiked a russian atheletes drink in retiaion?

The anti trumpsters are going completely wacko here and across the pond

 

Not odd, retarded.

 

I haven't watched a single olympic even on TV this year. I'm not against it. Just not interested.

 

Ok I am familiar with Meldonium like I am many non anabolic or androgenic drugs that do some things that help me now that I am getting older with my own training. I have never taken it. Other drugs fit my needs more. It is legal to buy. It is however a PED. It improves cognitive function.. Focus and greatly enhances recovery times from workouts.

All beneficial to a Curler.

Don't laugh at my source. Yahoo sports is very good and this doctor a few seconds in the video at the top explains precisely why Russia and its sports doctors are foolish to not replace this banned drug in their regimens.

Long story short it has a very strange half life. Supposedly just a few hours but vestiges can remain for months.

If I was Putin I would be very pissed at his sports doctors for allowing his athletes to take a drug that many others do the same thing that isn't banned. No way I'll believe a Russian Olympic Athlete is not on a only approved supplement schedule.

https://sports.yahoo.com/even-olympics-earth-curler-take-meldonium-031721648.html

 

OK this opinion is so long and incorrect.

No one cares what any country accepts as a banned substance. Your long spiel about this drug strengthening the heart to help protect it during training is CRAP.

Give me a break. If any athlete OLYMPIC caliber or not needs to take a banned supplement so they don't have a heart attack shouldn't be in the Olympics..

That's not why Russia has used this drug and many other countries for decades. It makes you focus and speeds up recovery times.

It's the Russian Olympic team physicians fault. Period. Send them to Siberia.

 

Ex.: a drug that reduces anxiety, treats ADD, etc., would improve concentration levels.

 

Really? Banned substances are officially taken by US Olympic athletes on permission of WADA. Systemically. In this case we have a trace big enough for single taking of mildronat possibly happening 9 months before the Olympics. Guess who will miss his Olympic medal. Dozens of US sportsmen or a single Russian athlete who is an anti-hero in all the possible western media?

They are sportsmen. Not gladiators. They don't need to die to fit into your personal understanding of sportsmanship. If you google 'sudden death of young sportsmen' you will find that dosens of sportsmen die every year because of a sudden heart attack. Sometimes it happens because of inherited heart illnesses difficult to identify. But in some cases it CAN be caused by overtraining. I personally am not against of sportsmen who are training day and night to ge the best results possible. If it is possible to give them a chance to survive it should happen.

Focus? Mildronat? Never heard of that. Staying focused deals more with training, skills and form rather than medicines. If I take a kilogram of Meldonium I won't be able to hit the target as a sniper. As for recovery - I would agree. That is exactly what I said in different words. It helps the sportsman to train more. But more training is fair.
What is your non-biased approach to the drugs mentioned here?
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/...na-venus-williams-russian-hackers-doping.html
These are icons of American sport and their illnesses reprted to WADA (to justify taking doping) makes them patients of a hospital.

It's hidden sanctions against Russia in a new war which might get hot any hour.

 

This drug has been banned since 2016. So why do Russian Sports physicians still provide it to their athletes in any form? At any time? Its measurable half life is just not predictable enough. Theres tons of recovery supplements! I have an idea why. Research who controls the training, diet, living etc for the Russian Olympic team. IE this curler. I can't I would need to be able to read Russian. I bet you anything that there are a bunch of trusted old school sports physicians still running the show. Running that program.


I 100% agree with you that Russia is not being treated fairly. There is another thread where I believe a Russian poster was criticizing the physical appearance of Serena Williams stating it had to be steroids being why she is so muscular. It's just not true. But she does and did take a wowsa cocktail of strength, recovery drugs. In my opinion many many times more effective than what the tiny amount of this supplement found in this Russian Curling Athlete. She kept her medal!

100% confirmed to me a doper. Obviously.... But

That medical waiver. Which in my opinion is the IOC allowing for licensed doping to countries it favors.

Then they make Russian athletes look like cheaters by saying well there's rules.. You didn't apply for the waiver. So transparent

Please stop it with the opinion about any of these Athletes needing meldonium for health / heart reasons. Just stop. It takes away from your argument. It's weak. Are Russian men so weak? That part of argument sounds like something a progressive leftist would say.

If I were Russian and even though Im not I feel sad the Olympics just like my countries FBI has become politicized. Controlled. By the establishment. Western establishment. It's true.

But. Russia has been the underdog in the world for a long time and I am embarrassed for Putin and Russia for looking weak. Looking stupid. Because this positive test never should have happened. He never should have been taking that supplement. So someone has some explaining to do back home.

 

Change order of the words and this scandal does not have anything to do with Russia at all:

Athletes Russia from Olympics.

 

Do people really believe this?

 

As a former Olympic gold medalist once said, “Everybody does it, I just got caught”.

Professional sports would be terrible without steroids and blood doping.

Secondly, how do they know he didn’t use a altitude chamber at night to increase his red blood cell count? It does the same thing as blood doping but is considered perfectly acceptable.

 

Fair point. It's just that I always think of performance-enhancing substances in the sense of being a physically dynamic resource.

 

The manufacturer of the drugs tells that the traces of it can be found within a larger period than a year. 9 months came from WADA (the guys who took our figure skater for tests instead of official training). Of course they used their data, because their aim is to destroy sport.

Yes and there are drugs with much better effect for muscle recovery. Mildronat is mostly about heart. In this very case the traces were 'enough to identify a single pill taking in the period of 9 months'. This information was given by Russian antidoping center with a reference to WADA test. So basically this pill could have never been taken and the traces of it could refer to peculiarities.

It's actually easy. First you get the task to find the way to blame Russian sportsmen. Then you find in the information a drug which is hard to remove from the body, then you ban it and then you can pressurize any sportsmen you like, though the drug itself doesn't have any effect that much comparing to allowed drugs.

The athletes are taking pills all over the world. The sport pharmacy is a part of modern sport for decades. I find it natural provided that the drugs don't increase the muscles and give a short term advantage at the expense of sportsman's health.

I am afraid to sound racist, but unfortunately I know that women like Serena and Venus were actually 'breeded' in times of slavery, when their race was not considered as humans by their lords. So muscles come from that time genetically. To blame a sportsman in doping there need to be facts. And the Williams were taking drugs as if they are gravely ill, which doesn't seem to be true. I don't blame the Williams however. Wether they had an advantage because of chemistry or not - they are still great. I blame the approach of WADA and heavy pressure from Olympic Committee on Russia. They need to have a justy and even approach which is absolutely not so at the moment.

English is not my native tongue and sport chemistry is not my major. I don't see any big difference in our approach to the problem.

I trust the manufacturer and facts of sudden deaths of sportsmen. It's not that I believe them to be weak. We had a young hockey player, Cherepanov died because of a heart attack. I am not 100% sure that they tell the absolute truth and doubt that Mildronat is 100% palladium wonder-pill to avoid the death. But I see the reason and respect the right of a sportsman to survive while making 110% out of his physical capabilities. They do it for me as well as a sport fan.

This is what pressurizing is. The guy who made 'confession' was fired from Russian Olympic sport team as a head of medical support. So the pressurizing started, Russian state fired a guy and then this very guy witnessed against Russian state... I mean it's an easy scheme to continue blaming Russia. And that is the only system behind it. If WADA actually helped Russia by making Russian sport cleaner it would have been nice. But that is not their aim.