Doping Specter Visits Curling

(ATR) Curlers from around the world faced questions from reporters on one of the topics du jour ahead of the 2018 Olympics, the Russian doping scandal.

Until now, doping and curling have mixed like oil and water. It may still be the case in the next few hours as the Doping-Free Sport Unit analyzes a B sample from an athlete in the Olympic Athlete From Russia delegation. If the B sample confirms an adverse analytical finding, the case will be considered by the OAR Implementation Group chaired by IOC Executive Board Member Nicole Hoevertsz.

Sunday night, Russian media reported that Alexander Krushelnitsky one half of the bronze medal mixed doubles curling team, tested positive for Meldonium. The drug was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency from Jan. 1, 2016. The drug made headlines when tennis star Maria Sharapova admitted to taking it. She eventually served a 15-month ban.

A positive drug test in the Olympics is hardly a unique matter, but this situation became highly charged due to ramifications for the OAR team in the PyeongChang 2018 closing ceremony. OAR must fulfill a number of criteria to be eligible to march under the Russian flag to close the PyeongChang Games, including the need to have no doping issues.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams revealed in Monday's press briefing that should the OAR Implementation Group be called in to deal with a positive case, they will report to the IOC Executive Board on Feb. 24, a day before the closing ceremony. Presumably, this would give the IOC enough time to determine whether to deny the OAR the chance to march with the the Russian flag.

Russia was banned from the 2018 Games after the IOC corroborated evidence from WADA that the country ran a state-sponsored doping system ahead of the Sochi 2014 Olympics. The IOC allowed Russian athletes to compete in the Games, if they met strict criteria, as neutral athletes under the Olympic Flag. However, IOC President Thomas Bach opened the door for removing the suspension of Russia if conditions were met.

In Monday morning's curling session the OAR women’s team lost handily to Switzerland 11-2. That loss dropped the team to a 1-5 record, making it highly unlikely for them to advance to the semifinals.

"[The girls don’t believe [this] also," Sergei Belanov, the OAR women’s coach said to journalists. "[There aren’t] any benefits [in curling]. And I don’t believe that a young man, a clever man, will use the same doping which was so big the last two years.

"It’s stupid. But Alexander is not stupid. So sorry, I don’t believe it."

The OAR skip Victoria Moiseeva told journalists that "there are no words" to comfort the mixed pair. She said the team is "trying to be nice" and not talk to the pair because of the situation.

"I don’t think there are any words," Moiseeva. "I really hope this didn’t happen, but I have no idea."

Konstantin Vybornov, the press attaché for OAR, told journalists that he could not discuss specifics of the doping case, including which athlete was flagged as positive or what sport. Vybornov said that protocol dictates that the athlete’s B sample must be opened within 12 hours after the positive test is flagged.

"We don’t have any result from the B sample, so I can’t say anything on this," Vybornov said. "Only after the procedure is over, it will be published officially, only after this we can make any other statements.

"In every situation every positive doping test could damage the reputation of a sportsman or a federation or national sport. Every case, concerning every country, so there is nothing positive in [the situation]."

Reaction from athletes in other countries mixed from wanting to focus on their own matches and ongoing tournament to pure bewilderment about doping in a sport with no positive Olympic cases.

"No, we’re kind of off social media, we’ve heard some rumors but I don’t think anything is confirmed right now," Rachel Howman, Canada’s skip said after her match. "There’s not much to do with our team."

Danish skip Madeleine Dupont brushed off the notion that a confirmed positive sample would damage the reputation of curling. Unlike other competitors she took a lighthearted tone about the whole situation.

"I think most people will laugh," Dupont said. "And say ‘what do you possibly need doping for?’"

Written by Aaron Bauerand Gerard Farek

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