The second doping case of the Pyeongchang Winter Games overshadowed another strong sporting performance from Norway on Monday with Russia again thrown into the spotlight for negative reasons.
Norway’s Havard Lorentzen triumphed in speed skating, Norway won the large hill team ski-jumping, and Germany and Canada shared gold in the two-man bobsleigh but Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) medallist Alexandr Krushelnitckii testing positive for meldonium will instead be the focus for the International Olympic Committee.
Krushelnitckii, who won bronze in mixed doubles curling last week with his wife, faces a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing which could affect his delegation’s chances of being able to march under the Russian flag at the closing ceremony on Sunday.
“If confirmed this will be taken into account (by the implementation panel) along with many, many other factors. There are several ifs along the way before we get there,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
The panel will report to the IOC executive board, which is set on Saturday to decide whether or not to lift the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee – imposed in December over doping practices in the country and at the Sochi 2014 Games.
If lifted, the 168 OAR athletes at the Games, who marched under the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony, could display the Russian flag and wear Russian uniforms at the closing ceremony.
Krushelnitckii is the second athlete to have a positive test announced in Pyeongchang after Japanese short track speed skater Kei Saito tested positive out-of-competition for the diuretic and masking agent acetazolamide.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands suffered a rare speed skating defeat in the men’s 500 metres which was won by Lorentzen. Ronald Mulder finished the top-ranked Dutchman in seventh.
“It’s time for Norway to step up on the top of the podium again,” Lorenzten said of his country’s first speed skating gold over any distance since 1998. “It feels so good to do that today.”
Germany’s Nico Walther and brakeman Christian Poser led going into the final runs of the two-man bob but faded to fourth as Canadian pilot Justin Kripps and Germany’s Francesco Friedrich ended in a dead heat.
There was also a split gold in 1998 and in 1968 Italy won gold alone on the basis of having a faster single run than West Germany following a cumulative tie.
Norway won the large hill ski-jumping team event to end the day atop the medal table with 11 golds, nine silver and eight bronze. Germany are second (10-6-4) and Canada are up to third (6-5-6).
In action elsewhere, the United States crushed Finland 5-0 in the semi-finals of the women’s ice hockey and will meet Canada, winners over OAR by the same score, in Thursday’s final.
The nations have met in four out of five women’s finals since the event was introduced in 1998.
Organizers also revealed 2,000 Olympic volunteers had not turned up to the Games and the number of norovirus cases has risen by eight to 283.