Russia loses Sochi Olympic crown as doping scandal claims medals

Russia lost its top ranking in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the most expensive in history, when it was stripped of two more gold medals in the doping scandal that’s engulfed the nation’s athletes.

The International Olympic Committee on Friday banned Alexander Zubkov, who won golds in the two-man and four-man bobsleigh events, after declaring that he’d violated anti-doping rules. Speed skater Olga Fatkulina, who won a silver medal in Sochi, was among three other Russian athletes who were also disqualified for doping offenses at the Games.

Russian resentment over the doping allegations, which the Kremlin denies, is already a source of tension with the U.S. President Vladimir Putin, who personally oversaw the USD50 billion preparations for the Games, has accused the U.S. of using the question of Russian participation in the Olympics as a means to influence presidential elections next March, in which he’s expected to seek a record fourth term. Olympic officials meet next week to decide on possible penalties against Russia for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, in February.

The IOC’s review of Russian athletes at Sochi followed the report of an independent commission last year. It concluded that Russian officials engaged in a “systematic scheme” to obscure positive dope-test results involving about 1,000 athletes from 2011-2015. The commission led by Richard McLaren found that Russia developed the program after its athletes finished in 11th place with just three gold medals at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, its worst performance since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The IOC this month has now sanctioned 14 Russian athletes who competed in Sochi, leading to the removal of 10 Olympic medals including four golds. Russia had placed first in the medals table in the 2014 Games with 33 medals, 13 of them gold, ahead of Norway, which won 11 golds and 26 overall, and Canada with 10 golds and 25 medals.

The decision to strip the athletes of their medals and deprive Russia of its first place in the table represents a “destruction of the Olympic movement and the killing of the Games,” Mikhail Degtyarev, head of the sports, youth and tourism committee in the lower house of Russia’s parliament, said, according to the Interfax news service.

IOC President Thomas Bach warned against attempts to “build pressure” on the body ahead of the Dec. 5 board meeting that will decide on Russia’s participation in the 2018 Games, the Associated Press reported. The World Anti-Doping Agency, also known as WADA, refused last week to certify that Russian athletes comply with rules outlawing banned substances, putting at risk the country’s involvement in the competition.

Putin said last month that the IOC could try to force Russian athletes to compete in PyeongChang under a neutral flag, which he called “humiliating.” Russia, which avoided a blanket ban at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, though its track-and-field athletes were barred, has said its team will only compete in South Korea under the national flag.

While Putin ordered officials to set up a new anti-doping body in response to the commission’s findings, Russia denies any state-run program of cheating existed. Putin complained that sport was being turned into a tool of “geopolitical pressure” on Russia.

WADA has called on Russian authorities to hand over all electronic files and stored urine samples from the national anti-doping agency’s laboratory in Moscow, something officials have refused to do. It’s demanded that Russia “publicly accept” the commission’s findings. Tony Halpin, Bloomberg