Showing posts with label Olympic Hockey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympic Hockey. Show all posts

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Sweden's Niklas Bäckström Banned from the Gold Medal Game for Using Banned substance

English: #19 Nicklas Backstrom
English: #19 Nicklas Backstrom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This has to be one of the most asinine things that I have ever seen. Nicklas Backstrom of Sweden was banned from the gold medal game against the Canadians for failing a drug test. Must have been performance enhancing right? Nope! According to Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy, the banned substance in question was Zyrtec-D. In my humble opinion, that has to be one of the most moronic things I have ever seen. It makes no sense what-so-ever. How is Zyrtec-D a PED? Why is this banned?
New York Times --- A Swedish Olympic Committee spokesman told The Associated Press that Backstrom, 26, had tested positive for a substance found in an allergy medication he has taken for seven years. Backstrom, a top-line center, had four assists over Sweden’s first five games.

The N.H.L. and the Capitals indicated in statements that Backstrom’s doping violation would not affect his status in the N.H.L. because the substance he tested positive for is not considered a banned substance by the league. Athletes competing in the Olympics are subject to tougher antidoping rules than those of the major professional leagues like the N.H.L.

The league’s deputy commissioner, Bill Daly, said, “We do not anticipate there being any consequences relative to Nicklas’s eligibility to participate in games for the Washington Capitals.”

Backstrom’s is the sixth known doping offense of the Sochi Games. The other athletes who failed drug tests were the cross-country skiers Johannes Duerr of Austria and Marina Lisogor of Ukraine; the men’s hockey player Vitalijs Pavlovs of Latvia; the biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle of Germany, who as a cross-country skier won two gold medals and three silver medals at previous Olympics; and the bobsledder William Frullani of Italy.
Did the IOC expect him to suffer and not have him take his allergy medicine? Being a person that suffers from seasonal allergies, I would be miserable if I couldn't take my over-counter medication for my allergies. This is a rule that has to be looked at and then nuked.
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Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Is the NHL closer to sending its players to 2014 Sochi Olympics?

100 px
100 px (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Let’s hope that they can get it done soon that will send the NHL players to the 2014 Olympic games in Sochi, Russia. It does sound like a deal is very close.
NEW YORK — NHL players are just a slap shot away from returning to the Olympics next year.

While a deal hasn't been reached yet between the NHL, the union and the International Ice Hockey Federation, to send the league's players to Sochi, a long meeting Monday pushed the sides much closer to an agreement.

"Things are moving along," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said.

Bettman, union leader Donald Fehr and IIHF President Rene Fasel met for more than five hours Monday at league headquarters to work on a deal that would allow NHL players to compete at the 2014 games in Russia. This would be the fifth Olympics for the NHL.

Not everything has been agreed to and the various sides need to meet internally to sign off on any pact. Still, Bettman called Monday's session a "constructive meeting," adding there are still "some I's to dot and T's to cross."

"I think it's fair to say that we're not quite ready to announce it's done," Bettman said.
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Friday, August 27, 2010

Leafs Burke weighs in on Games debate

This week during the World Hockey Summit in Toronto the NHL players playing the 2014 Olympic Games has garnered a lot of discussion. As a NHL hockey fan I want to see the NHL players play in the 2014 Olympics games and beyond, the 2010 Olympic hockey games were epic, some of the best I have ever watched, this is including the 1980 Olympics as well. I want to see the best players in the world playing during the Olympics. For some reason the NHL owners and General Managers seem hesitant. Here is what the Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke had to say.
The Globe and Mail --- “Our players don't get paid when they go to these tournaments,” Burke said. “They make nothing. The [International Olympic Committee] makes a fortune off this, and they can talk about redistributing it – and that's largely true – but the players don't get paid for this. I've been the GM of four U.S. teams at the world championships, and I love the tournament. I hope we always go … [but] our players don't get anything.

“I think they got $1,000 for 22 days of work last year. They got one business-class ticket to bring over their wife, or a parent, or a brother – they didn't bring their families over unless they reached into their own pockets and paid for it. These guys are volunteers. Everyone makes money off of these tournaments except the players.”

Burke's comments came in response to an overwhelming support for continued Olympic participation from most of his fellow panelists and those attending the summit, with only NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly also voicing reservations about the league's involvement in the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.

BallHype: hype it up!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Olympic question dominates Hockey Summit

Redwing77’s favorite NHL commissioner said that no decision has been made on the 2014 Olympics as of yet. That’s refreshing. I am hoping that by 2014 Gary Bettman is no longer the NHL commissioner.
Bettman stressed that no decision has been made on the NHL’s participation at Sochi in 2014 and, really, there’s no rush. He noted there were issues, a litany of them, to be addressed by both the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) before the matter is even considered by his league’s board of governors and a decision is made in conjunction with the NHL Players’ Association.

“We haven’t said, ‘No.’ Anybody who suggests that we’ve made a decision or that I’m anti-Olympics doesn’t get it,” Bettman told the gathering of delegates.

“What we’ve been simply saying is, it’s a mixed bag and it has been all along. We need to evaluate and re-evaluate and we’ll decide at the appropriate time.”

BallHype: hype it up!