The scandals of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City

The current Olympic Games in Salt Lake City are the grandest, the most expensive, and the most advertised, but they may also go down in history as the most scandalous Games, taking into account the organization of the games and the judging.

The scandal with the Olympic music, the campaign against Russian skaters Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, and the demarche of the Slovakian hockey team, and there were other scandalous statements, which were meant for those who organized the event.

For example, Russian biathlon sportsman Pavel Rostovtsev found journalists himself to make a statement to the press: “I have been repeatedly called in for drug testing today, for the second time in two days and an hour and a half before the competition. They took half a liter of my blood! Something should be done with that, I am constantly feeling the pressure of drug testing. I think they simply need a reason for a provocation.”

Pavel is certain that these questions must be solved on the state level, implying the participation of the president of the Russian Olympic committee, Leonid Tyagachev, and the head of the state Sports Committee, Pavel Rozhkov. The newspaper Izvestia informed that the supervisors of the Russian Olympic delegation had finally heeded the protests from the biathlon sportsman and decided to appeal the results of the biathlon race. There had been too much blood taken from Rostovtsev for the drug tests and the weak sportsman could not pass the distance normally.

Leonid Tyagachev said before the Olympics that Russia could count on the second or the third place in the games after the calculation of the total number of medals, but the bad judging could be a big obstacle: “A lot of countries have their own methods to work with the Olympic judges. A certain form of gifts is not ruled out,” – Tyagachev said. It should be also mentioned that Tyagachev said that the Russian skaters could win three gold medals, but they would not be allowed to.

The sportsmen of the republic of Belarus accused the organizers of the Olympics of being deliberately provided with bad food. Alexander Grigorov, the Sport Minister of Belarus said, that the organizers of the Games had forgotten their promises to locate the team not farther than 80 kilometers from Salt Lake City. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko (who is also the chairman of the national Olympic committee) also sent an official protest to the organizational committee of the Olympic Games.

Is there anything to follow? It would be naive to believe that there is only malicious intent. Outstanding negligence is more likely. Although, the Olympic Games are taking place in America, and that is also a factor.

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov