This week the IOC disqualified 12 more Russian Winter Olympians from the Sochi 2014 Games – Aleksey Voyevoda (BOB) on Monday, 18 December, and then yesterday, 11 more athletes were disqualified. This brings to 43 the number of Russians disqualified from Sochi since 1 November by the Oswald Commission findings. In all, 44 Russians have been disqualified from Sochi as Aleksandr Loginov (BIA) was DQed back in 2014.
Sonny and Cher once sang “The Beat Goes On” and Emerson, Lake & Palmer implored us to “Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.” But we think this ends it. The IOC examined 46 cases which was the number they said they had on their docket – exonerating 3 athletes and disqualifying 43. So, hopefully, we can summarize the “final” results of the medal standings from Sochi.
Here are the original medal standings from Sochi, again listing the NOC ranks by the US method (Medals-Gold-Silver-Bronze) and the European/International method (Gold-Silver-Bronze).
[table]
Original,NOC,G,S,B,TM,USRnk,EuRnk
23-Feb-14,RUS,13,11,9,33,1,1
23-Feb-14,USA,9,7,12,28,2,4
23-Feb-14,NOR,11,5,10,26,3,2
23-Feb-14,CAN,10,10,5,25,4,3
23-Feb-14,NED,8,7,9,24,5,5
23-Feb-14,GER,8,6,5,19,6,6
23-Feb-14,AUT,4,8,5,17,7,9
23-Feb-14,FRA,4,4,7,15,8,10
23-Feb-14,SWE,2,7,6,15,9,14
23-Feb-14,SUI,6,3,2,11,10,7
23-Feb-14,CHN,3,4,2,9,11,12
23-Feb-14,KOR,3,3,2,8,12,13
23-Feb-14,CZE,2,4,2,8,13,15
23-Feb-14,SLO,2,2,4,8,14,16
23-Feb-14,JPN,1,4,3,8,15,17
23-Feb-14,ITA,0,2,6,8,16,22
23-Feb-14,BLR,5,0,1,6,17,8
23-Feb-14,POL,4,1,1,6,18,11
23-Feb-14,FIN,1,3,1,5,19,18
23-Feb-14,GBR,1,1,2,4,20,19
23-Feb-14,LAT,0,2,2,4,21,23
23-Feb-14,AUS,0,2,1,3,22,24
23-Feb-14,UKR,1,0,1,2,23,20
23-Feb-14,SVK,1,0,0,1,24,21
23-Feb-14,CRO,0,1,0,1,25,25
23-Feb-14,KAZ,0,0,1,1,26,26
[/table]
And here is what the medals and standings look like today. The Russians have lost 4 gold medals, 8 silver, and 1 bronze medal, and dropped from 1st in the medal standings (both systems), to either 4th or 5th, depending on the system you favor.
[table]
Current,NOC,G,S,B,TM,USRnk,EuRnk
23-Dec-17,USA,9,7,12,28,1,3
23-Dec-17,NOR,11,5,10,26,2,1
23-Dec-17,CAN,10,10,5,25,3,2
23-Dec-17,NED,8,7,9,24,4,5
23-Dec-17,RUS,9,3,8,20,5,4
23-Dec-17,GER,8,6,5,19,6,6
23-Dec-17,AUT,4,8,5,17,7,9
23-Dec-17,FRA,4,4,7,15,8,10
23-Dec-17,SWE,2,7,6,15,9,14
23-Dec-17,SUI,6,3,2,11,10,7
23-Dec-17,CHN,3,4,2,9,11,12
23-Dec-17,KOR,3,3,2,8,12,13
23-Dec-17,CZE,2,4,2,8,13,15
23-Dec-17,SLO,2,2,4,8,14,16
23-Dec-17,JPN,1,4,3,8,15,17
23-Dec-17,ITA,0,2,6,8,16,22
23-Dec-17,BLR,5,0,1,6,17,8
23-Dec-17,POL,4,1,1,6,18,11
23-Dec-17,FIN,1,3,1,5,19,18
23-Dec-17,GBR,1,1,2,4,20,19
23-Dec-17,LAT,0,2,2,4,21,23
23-Dec-17,AUS,0,2,1,3,22,24
23-Dec-17,UKR,1,0,1,2,23,20
23-Dec-17,SVK,1,0,0,1,24,21
23-Dec-17,CRO,0,1,0,1,25,25
23-Dec-17,KAZ,0,0,1,1,26,26
[/table]
Now, everyone asks who will get the re-allocated medals. As noted in previous posts, medal re-allocations are not automatic and take some time as the appeal goes thru CAS (it is virtually always denied) and then the IOC makes a decision about upgrades. In a perfect world, where everyone is automatically upgraded to the next higher position, after a disqualification, this is what the medal tables would look like.
[table]
Possible,NOC,G,S,B,TM,USRnk,EuRnk
Possible,NOR,11,7,11,29,1,1
Possible,USA,9,10,10,29,2,4
Possible,CAN,10,10,6,26,3,2
Possible,NED,8,8,8,24,4,5
Possible,RUS,10,3,7,20,5,3
Possible,GER,8,6,6,20,6,6
Possible,AUT,4,8,5,17,7,9
Possible,FRA,4,5,6,15,8,10
Possible,SWE,2,8,5,15,9,14
Possible,SUI,7,2,2,11,10,7
Possible,CHN,3,4,3,10,11,12
Possible,CZE,2,4,3,9,12,15
Possible,ITA,0,3,6,9,13,23
Possible,KOR,3,3,2,8,14,13
Possible,SLO,2,2,4,8,15,16
Possible,JPN,1,4,3,8,16,18
Possible,BLR,5,0,2,7,17,8
Possible,POL,4,1,1,6,18,11
Possible,LAT,2,1,3,6,19,17
Possible,FIN,1,3,1,5,20,19
Possible,GBR,1,1,3,5,21,20
Possible,AUS,0,2,1,3,22,24
Possible,UKR,1,1,0,2,23,21
Possible,SVK,1,0,0,1,24,22
Possible,CRO,0,1,0,1,25,25
Possible,KAZ,0,0,1,1,26,26
[/table]
Note that Russia actually goes up 1 gold medal and loses 1 bronze medal from the standings as of 23 December 2017. Why is that? Well, in the men’s 50 km cross-country, the gold and silver medalists, Aleksandr Legkov and Maksim Vylegzhanin, were disqualified. The bronze medalist was another Russian, Ilya Chernousov, as they originally had a medal sweep. So if medal upgrades are done automatically, Chernousov would actually move up from a bronze medal to a gold medal, with silver going to original 4th-place finisher Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) and bronze going to original 5th-place finisher Sergey Dolidovich (BLR).
But that ain’t gonna happen which is why the “perfect re-allocation” is a bit of specious reasoning. One cannot imagine the IOC upgrading another Russian, Chernousov, to the gold medal, given the Russian problems in Sochi, and if they do not do that, then Sundby and Dolidovich cannot move up onto the podium.
To further complicate matters, Sundby had a doping violation in January for salbutamol – the asthma inhaler that recently nabbed Chris Froome – so it’s unlikely he would be advanced either. There have also been rumors that Chernousov was a whistleblower on Legkov and Vylegzhanin to move up in the medals, which has not been taken kindly.
Here are the sports in which the Russians have lost their medals:
[table]
Sport,Class,G,S,B,TM
BIA,F,0,-2,0,-2
BOB,M,-2,0,0,-2
CCS,M,-1,-3,0,-4
LUG,M/X,0,-2,0,-2
SKE,M/F,-1,0,-1,-2
SSK,F,0,-1,0,-1
[/table]
My compadre, @OlympicStatman noted that Russia had now had 44 DQs from Sochi 2014, the most ever for a single Olympics. Here are the all-time records for most DQs at a single Olympics by NOC (top 10):
[table]
NOC,Year,###
RUS,2014,44
RUS,2012,37
RUS,2008,18
UKR,2012,13
BLR,2008,12
BLR,2012,11
TUR,2012,11
UKR,2008,8
KAZ,2008,7
AUT,2006,6
[/table]
Note that the top 9 places are from the Sochi 2014 Oswald Commission findings and the re-testing of samples from 2008 and 2012, with the only other one (10th) the Austrian cross-country ski DQs from Torino in 2006.
To date, since the first disqualification in 1968, there have been 445 ADRVs (anti-doping rule violations) at the Olympics, with 72 different countries having at least 1. Here are the all-time ADRVs by NOC, listing the 35 NOCs with at least 3 violations. Some of these are not DQs but simply reprimands, and a few occurred in pre-Games testing so the athlete did not actually start at that Olympics.
[table]
NOC,###
RUS,117
BLR,29
UKR,28
USA,24
TUR,15
KAZ,14
AUT,12
BUL,11
GRE,10
CHN,9
GER,9
HUN,9
POL,8
CAN,7
ESP,7
MDA,7
AZE,6
BRA,6
ITA,6
ROU,6
ARM,5
SWE,5
UZB,5
IRL,4
LTU,4
MAR,4
MGL,4
COL,3
CUB,3
FRA,3
IND,3
KSA,3
LAT,3
NOR,3
TPE,3
[/table]
We think, and we hope, that this it for now. This has required us to make 239 major edits to the Olympic results from 2008-14, editing almost 12,000 results, and it has not been an easy task. It’s not finished yet, as there will be medal upgrades to come but for now we are up-to-date, and we think this is done until after PyeongChang.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus, Happy New Year – and to all a Good Night.