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Potential beneficiaries of the Russian doping scandal


AlexDS69

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Today, it was announced that Yuliya Zaripova of Russia will lose her London 2012 Olympic title in the women's 3000m steeplechase. With recent allegations that as many as 99% of all Russian athletes (as in track and field; I'm not sure if other sports are affected) are on the juice, many events from London 2012 and other events could be affected.

The runner-up to Ms. Zaripova is Habiba Ghribi of Tunisia. She stands to become not only the Olympic champion in the event, but the first Tunisian woman to be an Olympic champion in any event. Assuming that all the disqualifications and reallocations come into force, this is a list of who may inherit the gold medals in question:

20km Walk, Men - Jared Tallent, Australia

High Jump, Men - Erik Kynard, USA

800m, Women - Caster Semenya, South Africa

400m Hurdles, Women - Lashinda Demus, USA

20km Walk, Women - Qieyang Shenjie, China

High Jump, Women - Brigetta Barrett, USA

Hammer Throw, Women - Anita Wlodarczyk, Poland

Jared Tallent also feels that he was denied of the 2008 title in the 50km Walk because he lost to another doper, Alex Schwazer of Italy.

I wonder how deep this Russian doping scandal goes. I highly doubt that a Russian diver, figure skater, or gymnast would dope. (They'd tend to cheat using judges, not syringes.) But most other sports are fair game, such as boxing, shooting, weightlifting, and wrestling. You also have to wonder if some of Russia's medals in Sochi are linked to the doping scandal.

Edit: Jared could stand to inherit the 50km Walk title from London 2012, not the 20km Walk.

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Let's say that all of Russia's medals in Sochi were the result of cheating in any fashion (and IMHO there were plenty of suspicious results). If they were all stricken from the record, this is who would inherit the gold medals:

Biathlon - Men's Relay - Germany

Bobsleigh - 2-man - Beat Hefti and Alex Baumann, Switzerland

Bobsleigh - 4-man - Latvia

Cross-Country Skiing - Men's 50km Mass Start - Martin Johnsrud Sundby, Norway (4th behind a Russian podium sweep)

Figure Skating - Women - Yu-na Kim, South Korea

Figure Skating - Pairs - Alona Sawchenko and Robin Szolkowy, Germany (3rd)

Figure Skating - Team - Canada

Short Track - Men's 500m - Dajing Wu, China

Short Track - Men's 1000m - Sjinkie Knegt, Netherlands (3rd)

Short Track - Men's 5000m Relay - United States of America

Skeleton - Men - Martins Dukurs, Latvia

Snowboarding - Men's Parallel Giant Slalom - Nevin Galmarini, Switzerland

Snowboarding - Men's Parallel Slalom - Zan Kosir, Slovenia

I felt bad for the Latvians. They had a sliding track long before the Russians did, and Russia still beat them out for gold twice in Sochi.

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Some of those results really weren't suspicious, IMO. Alpine snowboarding doesn't seem to be a sport where doping provides much of an advantage (except marijuana, obviously :P ) and that has quite volatile results - as for Wild's sudden rise, he was always good but didn't have any real funding when he was competing for the US, Viktor "Hyun-soo" Ahn was this good way before he joined the Russian team and in the cases of Zubkov or Tertiakov it isn't like them winning, especially on home ice, was an upset (certainly less so than, say, Montgomery winning in 2010).

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We all know that the figure skating medal in women's singles was not deserved. Other than that, I'm a little skeptical about some of the Nordic events. Russia also got a big boost from having a home sliding track. The point is, there's no way Russia will ever win 30+ medals again. In fact, Iwouldn't be surprised to see them get around only 15 medals or so in 2018.

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We all know that the figure skating medal in women's singles was not deserved. Other than that, I'm a little skeptical about some of the Nordic events. Russia also got a big boost from having a home sliding track. The point is, there's no way Russia will ever win 30+ medals again. In fact, Iwouldn't be surprised to see them get around only 15 medals or so in 2018.

How exactly was it not deserved? Look I despise Russian athletes in general and love Kim Yu-Na, but even I can't deny that the Russian skank won the medal fairly. Her program was more technically more advanced than Kim's. If this was in the old system then maybe Kim would have definitely won the gold, but it's not. You have to play your points better and the Russian did just that.

And you're right they'll be just like the Chinese in the Summer Olympics, they'll never match what they did in Beijing in 2008. They certainly didn't do as well as they did in London as they did in Beijing. Even in gymnastics the women were disasterous.

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We all know that the figure skating medal in women's singles was not deserved. Other than that, I'm a little skeptical about some of the Nordic events. Russia also got a big boost from having a home sliding track. The point is, there's no way Russia will ever win 30+ medals again. In fact, Iwouldn't be surprised to see them get around only 15 medals or so in 2018.

Ya, but that's not cheating and every host gets an advantage from this. The US did better in SLC because they had home track, Italy did better in Turin because they had home track, Canada did better in Vancouver because they had home track. It's not cheating, it's just a fact in sliding sports that the host country always has a fairly significant advantage.

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Ya, but that's not cheating and every host gets an advantage from this. The US did better in SLC because they had home track, Italy did better in Turin because they had home track, Canada did better in Vancouver because they had home track. It's not cheating, it's just a fact in sliding sports that the host country always has a fairly significant advantage.

Did I ever say it was cheating? Don't put words in my mouth and read what I actually said.

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