OLYMPICS roundup

russia

Russian athletes await ruling on track ban

zhukovsky, russia

Long jumper Ekaterina Koneva says she’ll cry. World hurdles champion Sergei Shubenkov says he’ll drown his sorrows.

A day before a sports court rules on Russia’s appeal against the ban on its track and field team from the Olympics, star Russian athletes at a meet near Moscow pondered how they will react if they lose their case and can’t go to Rio de Janeiro.

“What if we are not admitted, what do we do?” asked Koneva, a world championship silver medalist who would be a contender for gold if allowed to go to Rio. “I hope they will tell us something good.”

Shubenkov said: “I will get drunk.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland will rule Thursday on an appeal filed by Russia’s Olympic track and field team of 68 athletes against a ban imposed by the sport’s world governing body, the IAAF, following allegations of state-sponsored doping and cover-ups.

As it stands, the IAAF has approved just two Russians to compete, as “neutral athletes,” after they showed they had been training and living abroad under a robust drug testing regime. One is doping whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, the other is Florida-based long jumper Darya Klishina, who has received threats online from Russian fans who think she would betray her country by competing if the rest of the team is banned.

doping

WADA reinstates drug testing lab

rio de janeiro

The World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday it has reinstated the laboratory that will carry out drug testing for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, which start in just over two weeks.

The lab was shuttered last month for what WADA called “nonconformity with International Standard for Laboratories.”

In a statement on Wednesday, WADA said the Rio laboratory “has successfully complied with the ISL’s requirements for reinstatement and no further suspension is required.”

The statement will be a relief for local organizers and the International Olympic Committee, which would have been forced to send thousands of samples abroad for testing.

The Rio Olympics have faced myriad problems: the Zika epidemic, soaring crime and security worries, slow ticket sales and severe water pollution in venues for sailing, rowing, canoeing, triathlon and distance swimming.

“Athletes can be confident that anti-doping sample analysis has been robust throughout the laboratory’s suspension, and that it will also be during the Games,” Olivier Niggli, director general of WADA, said in a statement.

He said the lab would be running “optimally” when the Olympics open on Aug. 5.

basketball

Popovich readies for 2020 in Tokyo

las vegas

While Mike Krzyzewski readies the Americans for Rio, Gregg Popovich is getting an early start on his own Olympic preparations. The San Antonio Spurs coach is overseeing the Select Team of young players training against the U.S. this week, and some of those players might be in the mix when Popovich coaches the Americans in Tokyo.

“He’s seen what we’re doing and it’s called succession,” Krzyzewski said. “The fact that we’re both military guys, we understand that I have the unit right now, he’s going to take command of the unit, and we both want the unit to do well.”

During practices this week, Popovich works with the young players in one part of UNLV’s basketball complex while Krzyzewski and his staff put the national team through drills in another. Eventually, the Select Team heads into the main gym for scrimmaging.

But Popovich isn’t just here to help the young guys. He’s basically a behind-the-scenes assistant for Krzyzewski.

“Pop is in all the meetings, he’s participating and this is giving him a feel for how we do things, and so it’s a seamless transition,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said.

Wire reports