PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Six-time Olympic gold medalist Viktor Ahn and three former NHL players are among 32 Russian athletes who filed appeals Tuesday seeking spots at the PyeongChang Olympics.
The 32 athletes all failed to pass the mandatory International Olympic Committee vetting – imposed as a result of Russian doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics – and weren’t invited to the games.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said it would likely hear the case Wednesday in PyeongChang. If the Russian athletes force the IOC to invite them, it would mean the medal contenders in some sports change dramatically only days before the games open on Friday.
CAS added that as well as short-track speedskating great Ahn, the 32 include world cross-country skiing champion Sergei Ustyugov and world biathlon champion Anton Shipulin.
Also on the list are former NHL players Sergei Plotnikov, Anton Belov and Valeri Nichushkin, who had been considered possible candidates for the Russian team.
If figure skater Ksenia Stolbova is invited, she could compete as soon as Friday morning in the pairs short program component of the team event.
Some of the 32 Russians are already in Far East countries like Japan so they will be acclimatized and ready to travel.
John Coates, the Australian IOC member who also oversees CAS operations, said Tuesday that the 32 had also filed appeals in Swiss courts, but didn’t give details.
The IOC hasn’t said why any of the individual Russians weren’t invited, but did say it used a newly available database detailing past doping when it decided who should be eligible.
The World Anti-Doping Agency’s athlete committee on Tuesday expressed its “profound disappointment and dismay” that 28 Russian athletes last week had doping bans from the 2014 Olympics overturned at CAS. The athletes want a “comprehensive review” of how the investigation by lawyer Richard McLaren into Russia’s doping conspiracy was handled.
“We share the distress, uncertainty and frustration expressed by many athletes on the news of this ruling and believe this decision to be a massive setback for clean sport,” the WADA athlete committee said. “We cannot lose sight of the extent nor the scale of the efforts that Russian authorities and athletes engaged in to cheat the anti-doping system.
“It is vital that athletes, countries, teams and officials that cheat be held fully accountable and sanctioned accordingly.”
The IOC is refusing to invite 13 of the 28 athletes that are still active.
Any Russians who win late invitations would compete under “Olympic Athletes from Russia” because the Russian team is formally banned for doping at the Sochi Olympics. That means they will compete under the Olympic flag and wearing uniforms without national insignia. If they win gold medals, the Olympic anthem will be played.
Late invitations could result in other Russians being cut, especially in sports such as hockey where a full roster is already registered. It’s not clear how that process would work.
WOMEN’S SKIING: Alpine skier Tricia Mangan has been added to the U.S. Olympic team.
Mangan is a 20-year-old from New York who finished 19th in a World Cup combined event at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, this month.
The U.S. Olympic Committee announced Mangan joined the roster after Jackie Wiles was ruled out of what would have been her second Winter Games because of a knee injury.
Wiles was hurt during a World Cup downhill in Germany on Saturday.
TELEVISION: Every Olympic event will be streamed live. But to watch online, you’ll still need to pay for a cable or satellite subscription.
If you’ve already given up on cable or satellite TV, you can sign up for an online TV service such as PlayStation Vue or YouTube TV. Otherwise, your video will cut out after a half-hour grace period.
The subscription requirement also applies to coverage of 30 events on virtual-reality headsets. That includes 18 live events, or 55 hours.
More than 1,800 hours of online coverage begins Wednesday evening in the U.S. with preliminary curling matches. Friday’s opening ceremony will be shown live online starting at 6 a.m., and on NBC’s prime-time broadcast on a delayed basis at 8 p.m.
SECURITY: South Korean authorities deployed 900 military personnel at the Olympics after the security force was depleted by an outbreak of norovirus.
Games organizers said 32 workers are being treated for norovirus in quarantine, including 21 from the Civil Security Staff and three foreigners.
About 1,200 people working security were being kept in their rooms while being tested for norovirus.
Tests over the last five days on the water used for cooking and general consumption have proved negative for norovirus, organizers said. But hygiene inspections will be intensified on all food and beverage facilities at the Olympics.
BOBSLED: American bobsled pilot Justin Olsen hopes to compete at the Olympics despite having had a successful appendectomy on the eve of the PyeongChang Games.
U.S. bobsled officials said Olsen, who is from San Antonio, Texas, went to a hospital in the coastal city of Gangneung on Monday and is trying to recover so he can compete in events starting Feb. 18.
USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Darrin Steele says officials are “heartbroken for Justin, but he’s shown us over the years that he’s capable of overcoming adversity.”
Officials say they’re discussing options if Olsen can’t race.
PyeongChang is Olsen’s third Olympics. He was on the four-man gold-medal winning team at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.