Tag Archives: Aleksandr Krushelnitckii

Doping… in Curling?!?

One of the Winter Olympics sports that is laughed off by many -but not me!- is Curling.

I genuinely like the sport, which involves players launching a “rock” on ice which slides to the opposite end of the field and in a target area.  Here are some examples of what are considered the best Curling shots of the past year…

As I said, I really like the sport, which people far more eloquent than I have described as “chess on ice”.  It is.  The sport, which does not demand a very high level of athleticism, except for when you’re sweeping, nonetheless requires a steady hand, a good eye, and plenty of mental skills.

When the Winter Olympics started, the first Curling events we saw were the mixed doubles, which involves a smaller team playing.  In the mixed doubles, a man and woman competing against another couple.  One of the earlier matches we saw involved this couple:

Image result for russian curling mixed double

They are Anastasia Bryzgalova and Aleksandr Krushelnitckii, a husband and wife team from Russia.  They are, if I may say so myself, a very handsome couple.  With their looks they could both, IMHO, easily be movie stars.

The married couple would wind up winning the Bronze Medal in Mixed Curling but, dark clouds have appeared on the horizon…

Russian players during the 2018 Winter Olympics are forbidden, because of the current doping scandal enveloping these players, from stating they represent Russia.  Instead, they are there are “Olympic Athletes from Russia” and are forbidden, if they win, from having their anthem played or from wearing any clothing which depicts the Russian flag (hence the reason these two above have fairly bland black outfits with equally bland white lettering stating who they are).

Anyway, Mr. Krushelnitckii, after winning the Bronze Medal, was found to perhaps have been doping.  Mark Trevelyan and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber for Reuters (and appearing on Huffingtonpost.com) wrote the following article regarding this new controversy…

Russian Curling Athlete Suspected of Doping Leaves Winter Olympics

I have to say, this is something of a heartbreaking story.  Again, we’re talking about CURLING here, a sport that really doesn’t require a superb physique or long term physical exertion, which makes me wonder if maybe Mr. Krushelnitckii was perhaps given this drug for some other reason and wasn’t aware it was a banned substance.

I know, I know: I could very well be superbly naive about the whole thing, too.

From the article, fellow Russian Curler Viktoria Moiseeva, who believes Krushelnitsky is innocent, stated:  With us it’s not faster, higher, stronger; it’s about being more accurate. I can’t imagine what kind of drugs you could use in curling … so it’s very hard to believe.

Well, there is the sweeping itself and, who knows, maybe Mr. Krushelnitckii had some problem with his shoulder(s) and used the drug to help get over that particular injury.

Who the hell knows.

Regardless, its a damn shame.  The two were not only a very attractive couple, they were easy to root for as they played their game smoothly and with grace during the times I watched them.

Ah well.