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Russian law proposed to limit athletes to 2 Olympics


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This makes very little sense to me. What's the point of this other than an over-reaction to a one-time situation?

http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2015/04/07/russia-law-olympics-ban-yelena-isinbayeva-evgeni-plushenko-maria-sharapova-alex-ovechkin/

Russian lawmakers will consider banning its athletes from competing in more than two Olympics, at least in part to avoid a repeat of figure skater Yevgeny Plushenko‘s controversy at Sochi 2014, according to Russian media and The Associated Press.

In Sochi, Plushenko, then 31, helped Russia to gold in the first Olympic team event and later withdrew from the individual competition after his warm-up before the short program.

He cited a back injury and underwent surgery after the Olympics, but Plushenko also said in December 2013 that he wanted to compete in the team event and not the individual event.

If the Russian proposal was a law in 2014, Plushenko would have been ineligible for Sochi (as a Russian, at least), and a younger, less injury-prone athlete could have taken the lone Russian men’s figure spot and competed in both the team event and individually at the Winter Games.

If the proposal blocks future athletes from competing in more than two Olympics, Russia could be without two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva at Rio 2016, plus hockey star Alex Ovechkin at Pyeongchang 2018.

Plushenko has said he could try to make a fifth Olympic team in 2018 as well. He spoke out against the proposed law in comments to Russian news agency TASS.

London Olympic silver medalist tennis player Maria Sharapova has competed in one Olympics.

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Two things are to blame for this proposal. One of them is the ISU and the other are the Russian coaches for men's figure skating.

The ISU should have been complete douchebags and not given Plushenko reinstatement to compete in ISU-sanctioned competitions. He didn't even bother appealing the decision when the ISU first revoked his eligibility.

And the men's coaches for Russian figure skating must be terrible not to be able to produce a consistent skater in the 4 years between Vancouver and Sochi. The fact that a completely broken down skater whose body seems to be barely holding onto itself by threads and who skates under the old 6.0 scoring system is the only one producing numbers that can look good in international competitions is downright pathetic. The coaches for female figure skaters have managed to put their program back together, so there should be no excuse for the men's side.

Oh well, if this means that Russia's medal count will suffer, then I am all in support for this! Let the Soviet further crumble!!!

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What a strange decision! So Russia wants to get back at Plushenko by penalising any other Russian athlete who is able to compete at more than 2 Olympics?

Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face!!!

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