Russia banned from 2018 Olympics

[suranyi]

@peedin

How strong are they traditionally in the Winter Games? They haven’t had the podium in figure skating recently.

Overall, very strong. The NYT just published an article in which they say they are medal contenders in 32 out of 102 events, listing them specifically. They are particularly strong in cross country skiing.

And they do have medal contenders in figure skating this year, in fact a likely gold medal winner for the women.

[ElvisL1ves]

I miss the good old days of the Unified Team.

[That_Don_Guy]

@Merneith

Not exactly. The man in the pair has to judge his strength in order not to throw his partner too high or too far, which would throw off her balance & timing. It’s about finesse as well as strength. And there’s not a drug in the world that will actually land the jump for you. That’s pure skill.

True…but those are just as true for a throw Triple. The difference being, the man has to be strong enough to lift the woman high/far enough for her to complete the four rotations - and the stronger you are, the more likely it is to be successful.

@Jackmannii

But very small.

From ABC News:

*"Aleksander Zhukov, the head of Russia’s Olympic Committee, who himself was suspended on Tuesday by the IOC, said that it had been a victory that the word “Russia” would be on the neutral uniforms to be worn by those Russian athletes allowed to compete.

“They’ll be called Russian athletes and not some kind of neutrals … that’s very important,” The Associated Press quoted Zhukov as saying in Lausanne…
Zhukov also noted that the IOC statement announcing the decision included a clause that made it more palatable. The statement said that if Russia complies with the decision then its suspension could be lifted for the closing ceremony in Pyeongchang. That could mean Russia’s team, having competed as neutrals, would be effectively restored at the close, though it appeared any medals won by its athletes would not be recorded to the country."*

Since when does the IOC “officially” award medals to any country? And since all of the athletes enter as a group in the closing ceremonies, wouldn’t recognizing Russia at that point merely be symbolic?

Also, didn’t at least some of the countries that competed “independently” in 1980 have country identifiers on their uniforms?

[That_Don_Guy]

@Jackmannii

From ABC News:

"Aleksander Zhukov, the head of Russia’s Olympic Committee, who himself was suspended on Tuesday by the IOC, said that it had been a victory that the word “Russia” would be on the neutral uniforms to be worn by those Russian athletes allowed to compete.

Apparently, this is true, sort of - according to a report on ESPN, the uniforms will say, “Olympic Athletes from Russia” (as opposed to being called “Authorized Neutral Athletes” like they were at the IAAF World Championships).

@That_Don_Guy

As for ice hockey, I don’t see the loss of Russia being as much of a blow as the NHL not letting its players participate. I am assuming this is not on a per-country or per-team basis; no NHL players will be given time off to play in the Olympics, period.

I missed something…there is a chance that Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League will not let any of its players compete if Russia is banned. 15 KHL players from Canada and seven from the USA competed for those countries in recent tournaments.

[ElvisL1ves]

There will be no NHL players there anyway.

[Chronos]

Quoth Robot Arm:

Adderall is said to improve attention and focus, attributes that are important to curlers. Don’t know if it would really make much of a difference, or if Adderall is banned by the IOC.

Not really. Adderall treats ADHD, which decreases attention and focus, so it’ll allow an ADHD patient to focus and pay attention at closer to normal levels. But it won’t increase focus any further for someone who’s already normal.

[dzeiger]

I’m uncertain if Adderall is something that would be of significant help in figure skating in particular, but it is absolutely banned by pretty much every sport.

[Ranger_Jeff]

I miss Katarina Witt.

[Atamasama]

@Ranger_Jeff

I miss Katarina Witt.

I remember she was my favorite in those crazy 1994 Olympics. She only got 7th place though. I probably had a bit of a crush back then.

Looking at pics I can see why.

I can’t believe that was 20, almost 25 years ago…

[Hoopy_Frood]

@Ludovic

Do you know who else had a very small pair? Wild Bill Hickok.

But he died with two pair.

@Chronos

Not really. Adderall treats ADHD, which decreases attention and focus, so it’ll allow an ADHD patient to focus and pay attention at closer to normal levels. But it won’t increase focus any further for someone who’s already normal.

Not quite true.

As far as the first part (speaking as someone who’s life partner takes a generic version of Concerta), you have the right result but for the completely opposite reason. Both Adderall and Concerta are stimulants. In people with ADHD, these actually target the part of your brain which involves attention and focus and speeds it up. As explained to me by my partner as explained to her by her psychologist, the problem with people with ADHD is that the rest of their brain is firing faster than the attention centers. Which means they get distracted by every sensory input and/or thought their brain has at the expense of the task at hand. The stimulants boost the focus level, and allow them to actually ignore the inconsequential. ADHD isn’t because there’s too much focus, it’s because there isn’t enough.

You are right on the second part…sort of. While it won’t increase focus for anyone who’s normal, what it will do is act as any other amphetamine for those people. And, because ADHD drugs serve a specific targeted purpose, they are easily prescribed for people who have the condition, and as a result there tend to be more quantities of them among the general populace then a lot of other amphetamines. (Especially with Meth concerns.) So there is high demand on the black market for ADHD drugs and a decent supply. (Liz was actually approached by people in law school who offered to pay her a lot of money for her medication, particularly around finals season. She turned them down, naturally.)

[Chronos]

I think you might have misparsed my grammar (I can see now how it was ambiguous). I wasn’t saying that treating ADHD decreases focus; I was saying that ADHD decreases focus.

And yes, the drugs used for ADHD are banned in sports, and rightly so, but because of the effect they have on normies, not because of the completely different effect they have on people with ADHD.

In fact, as I understand it, the current most reliable test for ADHD is simply to prescribe stimulants and see how the patient reacts to them. Almost any stimulant will help with ADHD, and some patients find themselves able to adequately self-medicate with just caffeine, without needing the stronger stuff.

[Robot_Arm]

@Atamasama

I remember she was my favorite in those crazy 1994 Olympics. She only got 7th place though. I probably had a bit of a crush back then.

Looking at pics I can see why.

I can’t believe that was 20, almost 25 years ago…

It’s amazing how the Olympics can make people household names for a couple weeks. Someone could probably do an almost endless series of “where are they now” stories.