Russians threaten to pull out of Olympics.

[Thrawn]

CBC SPORTS ONLINE - The Russian delegation is considering withdrawing its entire team from the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

 
Russian cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina failed doping test  
 
Moscow and the Russian Chef de Mission are now discussing a pullout after the women's cross-country relay team, the favourites to win Friday's event, surprisingly didn't compete because their star skier, Larissa Lazutina was disqualified after a blood test revealed illegal amounts of haemoglobin.

"These Games are the dirtiest in history," said Russia's Chef de Mission Leonid Tyagachev. "The IOC is favouring American show business to the detriment of the Olympic Movement."

Dirtiest Olympics in history eh?  Hmmm, wonder where that dirt is coming from.

[Raubvogel]

LOL....this coming from the people who introduced bearded women to the olympics....

If they pull out is that premature evacuation?

[Sandman]

Tell 'em not to let the door hit 'em on the bellybutton on their way out.

[Thrawn]

heheh  It would give the US hockey team a free ticket to the gold medal game.

Bah, it's probably all talk.

[bigUC]

Caught with their pants down, and all they do is to threaten and misbehave.  Any decent nation would have kicked the skiers home in a hurry and apologized.  If thats representative of their official policy they should be banned from the olympics permanently.

[Maniac]

Like there havnt been any unfair calls by the judges favoring the US this olympics... This latest incident with "Ohno" winning the gold in skating...



And the 1-3 placing in snowboard

If the US makes it to the final in Hockey we defenitly have the winner before hand... Not because of their talent but because of the home advantage...

[batdog]

The Olympics=pro heavy wieght boxing + Don King. Take it from there people.


xBAT

[Dawvgrid]

Wasn`t the Olympic to be amateurs only,and the world game for
pro`s,,,,further it should be a non political event.I think the olym-
pic spirit died a long time ago.
 
surtently the Swedes want to forget this in a hurry(you have to be scandinavian,to understand this )

[Mighty1]

Your right Maniac the US has no talent that's why we are hosting the Olympics so we can buy all the medals.

[midnight Target]

The biggest threat to the Olympics has come not from jingoistic Americans, but from the rampant cheating perpetrated by the eastern block athlete mills and steriod farms. It is a fact that the East German women who once dominated the swimming pools were on a steriod laced training program.
Russian and East German women once dominated the sprints....no longer, improved drug testing ended that. Tamara Press and her "sister" Irena were the dominant force in womens track through the 60's.....when sex tests were implemented they disappeared. The Russians have very little to whine about.

"A life in sports is only maybe five or 10 years, but life after sports is more important," said former Soviet ice-hockey star Igor Larionov, one of the first athletes behind the Iron Curtain to speak out against doping in a 1988 open letter to Russia's mass circulation weekly Ogonyok. Larionov, now a star with the Detroit Red Wings, refused to take pills he believed to be steroids when he was with the Soviet team through most of the 1980s.

And the only reason the Olympics were originally for "amateurs" was to keep out the underprivileged rif-raf. Baron de Cubertine didn't want the games sullied by the likes of "physical education teachers", or any others who were not properly gentile gentlemen (ladies didn't get to play until later).

[bigUC]

Originally posted by Dawvgrid

surtently the Swedes want to forget this in a hurry(you have to be scandinavian,to understand this )

Poor swedes - i actually feel pretty sorry for them - they have had some bad luck.  At least they don't complain about the judges.

[XMSR]

Just heard that the Russians want the figure skating from last night over turned and their girl should get gold based on corrupted judging.

Perhaps the IOC should make a new rule that once a medal is placed around the neck of an athelete it cannot be removed nor can more be made and yes if the Canadians figure skaters have to return their gold and keep the silver then fine even tho they should have gotten gold.

Hopefully this would stem the flood of complaints and yet mabey it's something the IOC needs to go thru to clean up certain aspects of the games.

[miko2d]

In the Soviet times all eastern block athletes were professionals - officially holding jobs or attending colleges or serving in the army.
 They showed up at those places twice a months to sign for their salary, which was heavily augmented plus their housing etc. was supplied for free. Also guaranteed training jobs for the rest of their lives once their sports career was over.
 
 In exchange they each trained 8-12 hours a day 6-7 days a week under the direction of several government-paid trainers.
 Winners of gold olympic medals received the Order of Lenin (like first kosmonauts) - the highest reward bar Hero of the Soviet Union.

 Besides the whole massive soviet sports system was not so much concerned with the benefits of the population but was in fact a very tight screening net over the whole population to detect the talents for city/republican/union/international competition for the prestige of the appropriate party bosses.
 If you were suspected in having a real talent, there was very litle chance that you would get away from participating. Most people would not ever think to refuse - besides obvious preks it was considered a civic duty. Same as having a great voice made participation in a public (college/factory/city) choir compulsory.

 The screening system was most efficient in East Germany. That is why that tiny (15 mil) country was getting such a disproportonate number of medals - even compared with genetically-ideentical west germans.
 Selection of genetically-suitable people is 98% of success in modern high-level sports. Having several trainers babysit/torture you 24/day took care of the rest - no matter your motivatuion or character traits.

 Of course they (commies) had an unfair advantage over the real western amateurs who had to make a living and pay for their training, etc.

 miko

[aknimitz]

Maniac, thats one of the most retarded posts I've read in a while.  Why did we place 1 and 3 in Snowboarding?  Maybe because we invented the damn sport?  No one finds it odd that Austria finishes 1/2 in Mens Downhill do they?

And Ohno winning the Gold?  Did you waatch the damn race?  He was about to BLOW by that Korean kid, I mean he was ridiculously faster, and the Korean kid blocked down.  Its as clear as the day is long.  Did Ohno do some acting?  Perhaps ... do soccer players act on fouls?  Perhaps ... do basketball players?  Perhaps ...

but your right, its all a big conspiracy.  Thats why when Ohno was drug down on his way to the Gold, the US protested and the race was run over again.  Oh wait, no it wasnt.  


Nim

[Eagler]

we wouldn't have this problem if Rollerball (the original from the mid 70's) were an Olympic sport