Russia BANNED from 2018 Winter Olympics!

[SuperMario]

https://www.tsn.ca/ioc-russia-banned...-flag-1.935184

Could mean that no KHL players go to the games either... WOW

[gainerama]

Without Russia there, who would protect everyone from Kim Jong Un?

[Daydream Nation]

That's a helluva move from the IOC.

[hockeyrobot]

Wow. No wonder Ovie was ok with staying. Probably knew.....

[lucafen4]

how does this impact the KHL's decision on whether to allow their players to attend? I'm thinking without Russia, they refuse to let them attend for other countries or under a neutral flag

[Jouko-Pouko]

This has been expected all along. It's the same thing they did at the Summer Olympics in Rio, and it would have been weird if they decided something else now when nothing in Russia has changed since then.

[Jouko-Pouko]

how does this impact the KHL's decision on whether to allow their players to attend? I'm thinking without Russia, they refuse to let them attend for other countries or under a neutral flag

That's very much a possibility - we should hear about their decision within a few days. I think it's likely they make changes to the KHL schedule so that there's no Olympic break anymore and teams won't allow their players to go in that case.

[ericdaoust]

I've also been banned from the 2018 winter olympics. It's not a doping or contractual issue, they told me it was more of a talent thing...

[tweetdrivr]

The BOOM you just heard was the sound of every Russian star-who-took-a-pay-cut-to-play-in-the-KHL's plans for an easy Olympic gold blowing up in their faces....

[lucafen4]

more importantly... what does this decision do to Canada's expected medal count? bump us up by 3-5?

[rataylor22]

Still a half measure. The right call would have been to ban all Russian athlete's period.

[bondon]

Still a half measure. The right call would have been to ban all Russian athlete's period.

Kind of agree and kind of disagree.

I think it's a huge blow to a country that has a lot of pride and cares a lot about status. I suppose the same could be said about most countries but I feel like this is a pretty big kick to teh nads.

[rataylor22]

You can't prove if someone hasn't taken performance enhancing, you can only prove if they have. So allowing "clean" athletes to participate is really jst allowing "athletes that haven't been caught" to participate. Granted, that's true of all athletes, but only one country had a systematic doping program.

[2014olympicgold]

Going to be interesting seeing a neutral flag hockey team...Wonder if they've ever made a "team olympic" hockey jersey

[Pit Bulls]

I surprised it took this long to make the decision.....