Russian out the door?

[Dr T Non-Fan]

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/winter...ews?id=1338183

"Without Russia, the Olympic Games will be lost," Smirnov said.

They should have brought their own vodka, regardless of the quality of potatos to the north.

Fact is, we always knew they were cheaters. Now they're getting caught and complaining about it.

[Mtl guru]

And now South Korea...

[Han Solo]

NBC is probably down on their knees to get the Russians to stay, since they want that much hyped US - Russia hockey rematch to be played.

[Pseudolus]

Reminds me of a T-shirt that was around the last time the Russkies boycotted the Olympics: 4 of the Olympic rings together with the 5th off to one side, and the caption "Let the Russians Play With Themselves"

[Oliver Klozov]

Salé and Pelletier should never have received the gold medal. Rogge is now lying in the bed he made.....or is he wearing the panties his mother laid out for him?

[VP]

Of course most of us here have our North American bias, but it's really hard to imagine an objective observer affirming the complainer's case.

Pairs - open and shut. The French judge's backpedaling the last few days just makes it more so.

Slutskaya - this was after they started their moaning, but she joined the chorus. No beef.

Cross Country - I don't know the procedures, but having been a supervisor for years in a job where there was drug-testing, I heard all the denials. I'm pretty sure the chance of false-positive is infintesimal.

Hockey- I didn't see the CZE-RUS game, so I don't know. I did see part of the USA-CAN womens' game last night and the officiating was bad and pro-American.

Ohno I - cest la vie. Kudos to Ohno for being a good sportsman.

Ohno II- I think they could've let it go, but the disqualification was not unwarranted.

Bottom line is the powers that be were right to set the precedent of overturning a bad call last week, but now they have to deal with sour grapes from many others w/o legitimate gripes. I hope they continue to tell them no.

I also heard the Russian hockey players will play tonight regardless of what their federation tells them.

[Aaron Brachowitz]

It's hard to take the Russian complaints about judging very seriously after decades of harsh judging of Western athletes by East Bloc judges. But they must feel very wronged to protest so publicly. I actually thought Slutskaya was generously judged last night, with four judges ranking her first despite Hughes' clearly superior performance. Hughes was inexplicably ranked fourth by the Russian and Danish judges.

[Oliver Klozov]

Does anyone believe that the Russian hockey team would actually obey its federation in the first place? What does the hockey team need with the Russian Federation anyway? What a joke.

[alex]

And what about Sasha Cohen? I felt she was much better than Kwan, but Kwan's marks blew Sasha away. I think it could have gone either way between the gold and silver winners, but I definitely think Cohen, and not Kwan, deserved the bronze.

[Brad Spirrison]

I agree with alex. Kwan's performance was uninspired and she got the bronze by virtue of her reputation.