Scandals of the Olympic Games

[Shaynaa]

I hope it is okay to start this topic.  Not sure if it was here or TWOP but the Rio post about this got quite the work out.  Thanks, Ryan Lochte.  I think there has already been curling drama.

[mehtotheworld]

Shani Davis and Erin Hamlin immediately springs to mind. Kind of sucks for Erin Hamlin if that spoiled carrying the flag for her in any way.

I haven’t heard of the curling drama. Must research!

Edited February 11, 2018 by mehtotheworld

[mtlchick]

10 minutes ago, Shaynaa said:

I think there has already been curling drama.

It's something you would never expect to read, but I did and you can't help but laugh.

[scarynikki12]

Just the fact that there are Russian athletes competing.  And not an insignificant number, but more than most of the other countries.  Sure, they won't be allowed to listen to their anthem if/when they win gold, but that's not exactly a punishment either.  If they were going to ban the Russians for the state sponsored doping reveals, then they needed to BAN THEM.  Yes, it would suck for those who competed fair and square but that's the point.  If the IOC really cares about this (and I don't think they do, they just wanted to calm people down after the news broke), then they would have banned them in total to make it clear just how much it isn't tolerated. 

[Fukui San]

Can people explain these scandals that are being referred to?  I'd like to know what constitutes a Curling scandal.

[SnoGirl]

I dont know about the curling scandal, but apparently a Canadian and Russian got into it in a cafeteria. Im guessing it had to do with the Russians doping. And in true Canadian form, they already (vaguely) apologized for the fight.

[Shaynaa]

Controversy has already hit at the Winter Olympics in mixed doubles curling

[irisheyes]

Well, there’s figure skating.  That’s always good for a controversy or two. ?

[Souris]

It's dodgy as hell that Russia is allowed to skate as a team when Russia is banned from competing as a team in these Olympics.

[galaxygirl76]

It's so much worse than that, they have two hockey teams!

[kittykat]

The frak!  Shouldn't one of the stipulations of registering as an individual Olympic athlete is that you're barred from team events no matter how many of you there are?

[galaxygirl76]

The 'olympic athlete from Russia' who won bronze yesterday in short track said something about dedicating that medal to the Russians are that were not allowed to compete so the IOC is investigating this now.

So it took one day to bring up Russia, exactly what they were not supposed to do.

[kicotan]

I'd say the dog soup offered by local restaurants qualifies as a scandal, no?  Apparently the government offered to subsidize the 12 restaurants in the county if they would take it off the menu during the Olympics, but only 2 took them up on the offer.

[walnutqueen]

51 minutes ago, kicotan said:

I'd say the dog soup offered by local restaurants qualifies as a scandal, no?  Apparently the government offered to subsidize the 12 restaurants in the county if they would take it off the menu during the Olympics, but only 2 took them up on the offer.

This has certainly has put a damper on my Olympics enthusiasm.  :-(

[xaxat]

Winter Olympics was hit by cyber-attack, officials confirm

Quote

Winter Olympics officials have confirmed the games were hit by a cyber-attack during the opening ceremony – but have refused to confirm rumours in Pyeongchang that Russia was responsible.

I understand why Russia became suspect number one, but until they get forensic evidence, there's no telling who did it.

[Silver Raven]

5 hours ago, galaxygirl76 said:

The 'olympic athlete from Russia' who won bronze yesterday in short track said something about dedicating that medal to the Russians are that were not allowed to compete so the IOC is investigating this now.

So it took one day to bring up Russia, exactly what they were not supposed to do.

Yeah, the IOC is studying whether or not to strip him of his medal for violating the agreement about not criticizing the rulings.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/ioc-investigating-russian-speedskater-criticized-doping-ban-winning-medal-151841478.html

[stealinghome]

The IOC should strip his medal...which means they won’t. They’ve already shown themselves to have zero balls when it comes to Russia, I don’t expect them to suddenly grow a pair now.

[Silver Raven]

Te Organizing Committee had to shut down plans for a multifaith chapel for visiting athletes and presumably tourists to pray in while in Korea, because of anti-Islamic protests.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/anti-muslim-protests-pyeongchang-get-winter-olympics-prayer-room-scrapped-141802474.html

[MVFrostsMyPie]

As a Persian, this caught my interest: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43008158 

Glad it's resolved now, but there is still not a clear reason why the IOC originally denied giving Iranians their Samsung phones (which every country received except for N. Korea. Who received them but can't take them home). Lame sauce. 

[Mittengirl]

Numbers according to Wikipedia - 

In 2006 there were 178 Russian athletes, in 2010 there were 177.  As the “home team” in 2014 there were 232.  As a “not a Russian” team this year there are 168 Olympic Athletes from Russia.  Not much of a ban.  Now maybe in some cases they had to sent the “B” person, but they still managed to send basically a full contingent of athletes.  The IOC is full of shit talking about a ban.

 

Was Russia allowed to send coaches, trainers, medical people?

[blackwing]

7 hours ago, galaxygirl76 said:

The 'olympic athlete from Russia' who won bronze yesterday in short track said something about dedicating that medal to the Russians are that were not allowed to compete so the IOC is investigating this now.

So it took one day to bring up Russia, exactly what they were not supposed to do.

Per the rules, they should strip him of his medal.  Weren't all of them told not to say anything about Russia or the ban?  I'm sure this guy was just trying to say how unfair the IOC was to Viktor Ahn.  

They need to make an example out of him to send a message to all of these "non-Russian" Russians.  If he loses his medal, then the Canadian Samuel Girard moves up into bronze.

[mtlchick]

We have our first suspected doping violation.

 

[galaxygirl76]

It's not quite a scandal because no one can control it but this wind thing is really starting to mess things up. Only one Alpine event so far, they even canceled the biathlon for today, and I read that around the ice arenas area the wind was so bad they made everyone stay as much inside as possible.

[blueray]

I wonder what they will do if conditions don't improve. Or even if they do they still have less time for each event.

[mtlchick]

2 hours ago, blueray said:

I wonder what they will do if conditions don't improve. Or even if they do they still have less time for each event.

Right now it seems for skiing they're going to simply cram as much as they can over the next few days.  

 

In short...winter conditions are starting to affect the Winter Games. 

[Indy]

4 hours ago, blueray said:

I wonder what they will do if conditions don't improve. Or even if they do they still have less time for each event.

I heard somewhere that there is the possibility of extending the competition past the Closing Ceremonies if need be 

[galaxygirl76]

It's turning into a big thing in the Netherlands. In 2014 the Dutch coach of the French pursuit team asked the coach of the Dutch pursuit team to take it easy on them so they wouldn't humiliate the French team in order for them to keep their funding. Dutch team was like yeah no and crushed them. Anyway the NOC involved the IOC, the NOC handled it internally at the time until a paper brought it up today.

 

https://nltimes.nl/2018/02/15/match-fixing-dutch-speed-skating-coach-reprimanded-2014-olympics

[Garden Wafers]

I know it's not a huge scandal, but it greatly amuses me that curling is once again involved in a kerfuffle - this time regarding the Canadian women's team and the etiquette over a burnt rock. 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/olympics/canadian-women-still-winless-in-curling-after-extra-end-loss-to-denmark/article38004573/

[galaxygirl76]

Dutch news is reporting that a Russian* curler tested positive on meldonium(the drug that Maria Sharapova tested positive on a few years ago). He won bronze in the mixed event. 

 

Poor curling gets all the scandals lol

[wendyg]

Sharapova and hundreds of others. It appears that meldonium was in quite widespread use among Eastern European athletes.

[selkie]

Given that the OAR had to show negative samples before being allowed to compete, she would have been using recently.

[kili]

Why does a curler need meldonium? It's a precision sport, not a strength sport. Firing the rocks down the ice at top speed doesn't really help. You need some strength, but not performance enhancing drug strength. 

Is this indicative of how prevalent doping is with the Russians? Even if you don't really need it, they take them anyway?

[Garden Wafers]

4 hours ago, galaxygirl76 said:

Poor curling gets all the scandals lol

It really does. There was also a controversy during the match between Great Britain and Sweden; Muirhead lost due to a hogline violation - but based on some video replays, it looks like it might have been just a double touch and sensors on the rocks may not have been able to accurately discriminate between the two cases. 

[selkie]

19 minutes ago, kili said:

Why does a curler need meldonium? It's a precision sport, not a strength sport. Firing the rocks down the ice at top speed doesn't really help. You need some strength, but not performance enhancing drug strength. 

Is this indicative of how prevalent doping is with the Russians? Even if you don't really need it, they take them anyway?

A lot of PED use isn't about increasing strength but rather increasing endurance so it's easier to train harder for longer. Until the testing got decent for it, EPO use was endemic in many sports like cycling and nordic skiing because of the endurance boost from it. 

[Souris]

Apparently the Russian* curler said he thinks his drink was spiked by another Russian curler who wasn't picked for the team.

OK.

[xaxat]

2 hours ago, kili said:

Why does a curler need meldonium? It's a precision sport, not a strength sport.

As a drug that has an effect on the heart, it's possible that he thought it might have effects similar to beta blockers, a drug that slows down the heart rate and is occasionally used  as a cheat in the shooting sports because of its steadying qualities. 

[selkie]

58 minutes ago, Souris said:

Apparently the Russian* curler said he thinks his drink was spiked by another Russian curler who wasn't picked for the team.

OK.

Which sounds rather like the Japanese kayaking case that was all over the sporting press a few weeks back

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jan/09/japanese-kayaker-spikes-rivals-drink-yasuhiro-suzuki

[BitterApple]

Just to add perspective, I was watching a British documentary about this boy in Russia who was gaining tons of weight and nobody could figure out why. They had a British doctor travel to Russia to meet and interview the family, and when they took the kid to see a pediatric specialist in Moscow, the first question out of her mouth was "Has he been tested for steroids?". The British doctor was taken aback, and the woman explained that it's common in Russia for parents to start doping their kids with short courses of steroids and growth hormone at a young age. It's crazy to think any parent would endanger their kid's health like that, but apparently it's no biggie over there. 

Edited February 18, 2018 by BitterApple

[scarynikki12]

It's been pretty quiet so far but it looks like figure skating will have some scandal for us.  The Russian Federation was apparently super pissed that they didn't even medal in pairs (which they've owned to the point that finishing 1-2 is fairly normal) and have set their sights on Ice Dancing to make up for it.  Anyone who saw the Russian dancers in the team event can say that they shouldn't make the podium if the expected contenders skate clean.  They aren't bad, just not medal worthy.  So we should see some intentional low scores for top dancers to let the Russians get bronze or silver. 

[kili]

Quote

 The Russian Federation was apparently super pissed that they didn't even medal in pairs (which they've owned to the point that finishing 1-2 is fairly normal) and have set their sights on Ice Dancing to make up for it.

Apparently, the rumours are that the Russians are conspiring with the French team again and the French ice dance team will win.  A central figure in the 2002 skate judging scandal,  Didier Gailhaguet, is back in charge of the French Ice Sports Federation (he was banned for three years by the ISU, but returned to be in charge of French Skating in 2007 - he wanted to become ISU president back in 2015, but lost). 

Edited February 18, 2018 by kili

[Stuffy]

Are we talking about the Russian pairs that had bad music, costumes, and choreography?  Maybe they should've made sure they had a decent program that made sense. 

[kalystia1983]

3 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

It's been pretty quiet so far but it looks like figure skating will have some scandal for us.  The Russian Federation was apparently super pissed that they didn't even medal in pairs (which they've owned to the point that finishing 1-2 is fairly normal) and have set their sights on Ice Dancing to make up for it.  Anyone who saw the Russian dancers in the team event can say that they shouldn't make the podium if the expected contenders skate clean.  They aren't bad, just not medal worthy.  So we should see some intentional low scores for top dancers to let the Russians get bronze or silver. 

3 hours ago, kili said:

Apparently, the rumours are that the Russians are conspiring with the French team again and the French ice dance team will win.  A central figure in the 2002 skate judging scandal,  Didier Gailhaguet, is back in charge of the French Ice Sports Federation (he was banned for three years by the ISU, but returned to be in charge of French Skating in 2007 - he wanted to become ISU president back in 2015, but lost). 

 

I have to wonder if this talk bothers the athletes.  I competed in a judged sport for a few years, and I know I would be bothered to find out that I didn't really earn a medal but it was because of behind the scenes deals and trading.  Although on the flip side it seems like people expect it at a certain level in certain sports (ie ice dance).

[legaleagle53]

1 minute ago, kalystia1983 said:

I have to wonder if this talk bothers the athletes.  I competed in a judged sport for a few years, and I know I would be bothered to find out that I didn't really earn a medal but it was because of behind the scenes deals and trading.  Although on the flip side it seems like people expect it at a certain level in certain sports (ie ice dance).

Which, sadly, is one of the reasons that many people question the legitimacy of judged sports like figure skating as actual "sports."  They feel that if the results can't be quantified by a scoreboard, a stopwatch, or a tape measure, the results are too subjective and hence unreliable -- subjective elements can be vulnerable to conspiracy (as has been the case in figure skating and gymnastics), but objective results much less so.

[Irlandesa]

And yet I don't hear as much about judging issues in snowboarding or the judged skiing events.  Do they have these issues as well or is there something they manage to do to avoid them?

6 hours ago, selkie said:

Which sounds rather like the Japanese kayaking case that was all over the sporting press a few weeks back

And similar to a story line I saw last week in the US debut of Private Eyes. 

[galaxygirl76]

15 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

And yet I don't hear as much about judging issues in snowboarding or the judged skiing events.  Do they have these issues as well or is there something they manage to do to avoid them

Less Russians*?

[KAOS Agent]

I think one of the Australian snowboarders was complaining about the scores Shaun White was receiving earlier this season. I don't know if he thought that White shouldn't have been winning the competitions though or if it was only about what he thought were inflated scores just to elevate White's status coming into the Olympics. They did make it clear that there was no controversy with White's win at the Olympics. All the tricks look the same to me, but they all agreed that Shaun's run was more difficult than what everyone else had laid down. 

[AshleyN]

I'm sure that there's disagreement on scores when it comes to those other sports (for example, after the men's snowboard slopestyle our commentator seemed to be trying to find the most diplomatic way of saying that he thought Mark McMorris should have won), but a big part of the problem in figure skating is powerful national federations jostling behind the scenes, which due to the structure of those other sports (snowboarding in particular), doesn't seem to be the same issue.

[Shaynaa]

French ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis had a wardrobe malfunction and her nipple popped out.  NSFW!

[galaxygirl76]

Mathieu Favre, Mikaela Shiffrin's boyfriend, send home by French team after post race comments

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/mikaela-shiffrins-boyfriend-booted-olympics-angry-post-race-comments-090335446.html

[wendyg]

bitterapples: One look at tennis parents will tell you there are bound to be some crazy enough to dope their kids if they think it will gain them a pro career.