Moscow, RUSSIA - Doping scandals and a distinct lack of gold medals mean Russian sports fans haven’t had much to cheer about at the Winter Olympics so far. But they were in full voice on Wednesday afternoon at a central Moscow bar as their men’s ice-hockey side stormed to a 6-1 win over Norway to book a place in the semifinals.“Russia! Russia!” chanted around a dozen ecstatic fans, grouped around multiple television screens at the bar, just a short walk from the Kremlin. “They might be the Olympic Athletes from Russia to the rest of the world, but to us they are still simply Russia,” said Dariya Kuznetsova, a 20-year-old university student. State media commentators have also ignored the team’s unwieldy official title, usually referring to the country’s Olympic competitors as simply “our athletes.”
The International Olympic Committee in December banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea as punishment for what it said was massive, state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Games in Sochi. As a compromise, it allowed Russian athletes who could prove they were clean to compete at the Games under the name Olympic Athletes from Russia. Although President Vladimir Putin admitted that doping was a problem in Russian sport, he denied that the use of banned performance-enhancing substances was encouraged by state sports officials.
The decision to bar the Russian team, including a ban on its flag and anthem at the opening ceremony, provoked anger in Russia, where many saw it as an example of anti-Russian attitudes. In Perm, a city in Russia’s Ural region, a straw dummy of Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory turned whistle-blower, was burned this week at traditional celebrations to mark the last day before Russian Orthodox Lent, according to Russian media.
Athletes who decided to go to the Games and compete as an Olympic Athlete from Russia also faced accusations that they were betraying their homeland. “Either you are a patriot, or you go to the Olympics,” said Anatoly Kuzychev, a state television presenter, during a popular talk show ahead of the Winter Games.
But once the Olympics kicked off on February 9, such talk was largely forgotten as Russians got behind their depleted team, said Sergey Lisin, a senior editor at Match TV, Russia’s biggest sports channel.
“People realise that our team isn’t at full strength, and so their support is even more whole-hearted than at previous Winter Olympics,” Mr. Lisin told the Washington Times. “I personally don’t know anyone who thinks our athletes are unpatriotic for competing.”
It was an opinion echoed by the fans in the central Moscow bar. “Athletes prepare for the Olympics their whole lives,” said Yury Pavlin, a 19-year-old fan at the Moscow sports bar. “Why should they let politics get in the way of their dreams? Especially if they have had nothing to do with doping.”
There was fresh anger, tinged with confusion, this week, however, when Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky tested positive for meldonium, a banned performance-enhanced substance. The Swiss-based court of arbitration for sport has initiated legal proceedings against the athlete. Mr. Krushelnitsky, who this month won the mixed doubles bronze medal with his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova, denied doping. “I have never, never during the time that I practice sport, used forbidden drugs,” he said.
Last year, over 100 athletes, many from Russia and former Soviet bloc states, were ruled by anti-doping agencies to have used meldonium, which was invented in the USSR in the 1970s. Most Russian experts say, however, that substance would bring little benefit to a curler. “Curling is possibly the only Olympic sport in which doping is of no help at all,” said Pavel Zanozin, a sporting commentator on Russia’s flagship Channel One station. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said he hoped that Krushelnitsky would be cleared by the impending International Olympic Committee investigation.
Pro-Kremlin media has suggested that Krushelnitsky was spiked with meldonium, and hinted at a plot to blacken further the international reputation of Russian sport. Dmitry Smirnov, a journalist with Sport Express, one of Russia’s top sports newspapers, suggested that foreign intelligence services could have been to blame. It was an opinion echoed on social media. “This is just a plot by the Yankees to destroy Russian sport,” wrote one Twitter user. One of the more unusual theories pushed by state media was that Krushelnitsky could have taken over-the-counter anti-hangover remedy without knowing it contained meldonium: “This is a celebration of sport, but there’s no prohibition there.”
As conspiracy theories swirled, Moskovsky Komsomolets, a popular Russian newspaper, even carried out an experiment to determine whether coffee spiked with the banned substance would taste differently from normal coffee. A volunteer at the newspaper ruled that it tasted even better.
“I’m not sure what to think about this,” said Mr. Pavlin, the sports fan, as Russia’s ice-hockey team hammered home their sixth goal against Norway. “Lots of athletes probably use doping. But I’d like to think it’s all some kind of mix-up. The alternative would be just awful.”
Story publish date: 02/22/18
A version of this story was published in the Washington Times.
