Olympia 2018: Speed skating: Ihles excludes Russian competitors from Olympia

Speed skater Nico Ihle won 9th place at the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang. till 25. February) some top-class opponents less. In world record holder Pavel Kulishnikov, Denis Yuskov and the world’s best rider Ruslan Murashov, the IOC eliminated three Russian world-class speed skaters from the list of candidates for a start under a neutral flag.

Due to systematic doping, several Russian sports stars were excluded from the Winter Games on Tuesday, including biathlete Anton Schipulin and cross-country skier Sergei Ustjugov.

“I’m glad that now athletes are going to compete with fair means. How credible are athletes such as Kulishnikov or Yuskov, who have already been banned before,”said Ihle, who hunts for medals in South Korea over 500m and 1000m.

Apart from a women’s trio, Sergei Trofimov is the only Russian speed skater who is allowed to compete as a neutral sportsman in the Gangneung Speedskating Arena.

“Ihle, Olympic gold medallist from 2014 over 1000 m, said:”At the World Cup in Erfurt, I would have been on the podium at the second 1000 m.”What rankings would we have won if these Russians had already been banned? And at the European Championship in Kolomna, two Russians were on the podium in front of me for more than 1000 metres.”