OLYMPICS roundup

doping

Russian track athletes angered by Rio ban

zhukovsky, russia

Russia’s top athletes reacted with anger after the news broke Thursday that their track and field team would remain banned from next month’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Two-time Olympic champion pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, the team’s biggest star, wrote on Instagram that without Russia, historically a track superpower, only “pseudo-gold medals” would be on offer at a devalued Rio Olympics.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision — to reject an appeal against an earlier ban — marked the “funeral” for track and field, Isinbayeva told state news agency Tass.

At a competition near Moscow that had been scheduled as a final tune-up before the games, most athletes saw the ruling as fundamentally unjust, and based on unfair allegations of mass doping and government cover-ups.

“It’s a big blow for me personally and for the athletes,” said world high jump champion Maria Kuchina, who would have been a strong contender for gold at her first Olympics.

Three hours after news came through that Russia’s appeal against the ban by the International Association of Athletics Federations had been rejected, Kuchina leapt 2 meters in front of the sparse crowd. The jump would have been good enough to have won the gold medal at the European championships earlier this month — if she and the rest of the Russian team had not been suspended.

“Despite all the difficulties and problems, we kept training,” she said. “Today I showed that I’d be in contention for the Olympic podium, regardless of the news today.”

BASKETBALL

Marc Gasol to miss games for Spain

madrid

The Spanish basketball federation says that center Marc Gasol will miss the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after failing to recover from a broken foot in time.

The federation says “Marc Gasol hasn’t passed the necessary medical tests” and will miss the games.

Gasol has not played since he broke his right foot in February while playing for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Spain won silver medals in men’s basketball at the last two Olympics, losing the finals to the United States.

The 2016 basketball event starts in less than three weeks.

swimming

Franklin, Lochte with more down time in Rio

Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte will be busy in the pool at the Rio Olympics. Just not as busy as they wanted to be.

The two popular stars from the U.S. swimming team four years ago in London have just three individual events between them in Rio, hardly the frenetic schedule they’ve grown accustomed to over the years.

Four years ago, Franklin swam two individual events and three relays, while Lochte had three individual events, plus two relays. Together, they won 10 medals.

This time, neither will defend their Olympic titles in two events. Franklin failed to qualify for the 100-meter backstroke at the recent U.S. trials, while Lochte, bothered by a groin injury, didn’t make the team in the 400 individual medley.

The perpetually upbeat Franklin put a positive spin on her reduced schedule that will give her more time in the stands cheering on her teammates.

“I’m still a second-time Olympian, I get to go to Rio, I get to be a part of this team,” she said.

Franklin’s seventh-place finish in the 100 back at trials had her in the unusual position of publicly working through major disappointment.

“You have this idea in your head that everyone’s careers are perfect all the time, and as soon as yours starts to waver a little bit you start wondering, ‘Oh my goodness, why is this happening?”’ she said. “You sort of start to realize no one has the perfect career, no one makes every team in every event that they want to.”

Staff/wire reports