How doping helps even Olympic curlers — like the accused athlete from Russia — get ahead

REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton

• A Russian athlete tested positive for using the banned performance-enhancing substance meldonium at the Winter Olympics after he and his wife won the bronze medal in mixed doubles curling.
• Yes, you read that right: curling.
• There’s an argument to made that an endurance boost could help with curling. But Alexander Krushelnitsky has a more sinister explanation for why he failed his drug test.

For anti-doping authorities at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, all eyes were on the Russian athletes.

After the systematic doping operation undertaken by the Russians at the 2014 Sochi Games was revealed, the Russians were banned from even competing under their own national flag. Instead, athletes had to compete in neutral uniforms, listed as “Olympic athletes from Russia.”

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