Far From the Games, a Canadian Skater Says Russia Cost Him a Spot

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — It will be in the predawn hours in western Canada when William Dutton settles in to watch the men’s 500-meter speedskating event at the Winter Olympics. That Dutton is on the couch and not at his second Games owes in part to the long legal drama rooted in the complex aftermath of the Russian doping scandal.

Dutton, 28, considers himself a collateral victim of the International Olympic Committee’s protracted process of deciding whether to bar dozens of Russians after one of the most audacious doping plots in sports history. In his view, had the I.O.C. acted more quickly and taken a hard line sooner, he would be on the start line on Monday.

“It seems strange not being there,” Dutton said by phone, speaking from his father’s house in Vancouver. “I was finally hitting my stride, all that stuff I worked so hard for. Now it’s just gone.”

A year and a half after the scandal surfaced — and just two months before the start of the Games — the I.O.C. announced on Dec. 5 that Russia was effectively banned from the Olympics. Only Russian athletes it determined had no links to the doping scheme would be allowed to participate, under a neutral flag.

On that day, Dutton thought his path to the Olympics had opened. The process appeared simple, until it wasn’t.Canada uses a complex formula to select members of its team, but if a skater is among the top 16 in the world, finishes in the top three at the national championships, and has skated a time that is faster than the Olympic cutoff standard, qualification for the Olympics is automatic.The Russia ban figured to rule out two Russian skaters ranked ahead of Dutton, who was ranked 18th when the I.O.C. announced the ban. That put him in the top 16, he thought. Also, Dutton had finished second in the 500 meters at the Canadian nationals. His best time in the 500 meters didn’t meet the qualifying standard, but that number was determined in part by the times of those two Russian skaters who appeared likely to be barred. Eliminate them, and he met the standard.

However, the I.O.C. took more than a month to decide the exact criteria for barring the Russians. The I.O.C. president, Thomas Bach, has said the time was necessary to provide the Russians with due process and figure out a complicated procedure for approval.

Source :-  nytimes