Virginia wrote:I am bothered by the fact that the IOC won't disclose the names and reasons for striking athletes from Russia.
If skaters like Stolbova and Bukin are guilty of doping, then the ISU needs to ban them as well. It's not enough just to prevent them from going to Pyeongchang; we have Worlds a month later. If they're guilty, they're guilty, and need to be suspended from the sport altogether, not just from the Olympics.
The IOC has not presented any explanations of not inviting Stolbova and Bukin. Based on what grounds the ISU should suspend them from Worlds???
Note, that two weeks ago they won Silver and Bronze at Euros and there were no information of them violating any anti-doping rule.
All Russian sportsmen excluded from Pyeongchang sent the requests to the IOC for the explanations. Also the heads of the Biathlon, and Ski federations sent personal requests demanding either present the evidence or let them compete in Korea. They wrote that with the absence of top skiers and biathlonists the competitions will loose interest. In response the IOC published the list of 17 criterias based on which they made their decisions. But the clarification which exactly critearia the athlete did not pass had not been given.
As I wrote earlier, Viktor Ahn (Six-time Olympic champion, six-time absolute world champion (2003-2007, 2014), 20-time world champion, eight-time winner of the World Cup in Short Track) in his open letter demanded the explanations for him to be able to defend his honor and dignity. No answer from the IOC yet.
Maybe some information from the IOC will be given later...
By the way, a lot of Russsian athletes who were deprived the medals from Sochi continue to compete at World cups, the European and other championships. The respective Sports federations did not remove them from the competitions for the lack of evidence of their fault.