Russian bill forbids Russian athletes competing in more than two consecutive Olympics

[Coldplay619]

Slava Malamud @SlavaMalamud · 3h
Russian lawmakers have introduced a bill forbidding Russian athletes to compete in more than two consecutive Olympics.

Slava Malamud @SlavaMalamud · 3h
This of course would make Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Varlamov, Radulov all ineligible to play for Team RUS in 2018.

Slava Malamud @SlavaMalamud · 3h
The law's intent is to make sure young athletes are given a chance. Evgeny Plushenko's disaster is cited as an example. No downside, right?

Slava Malamud @SlavaMalamud · 2h
"We will be a worldwide laughingstock" - RUS Skiing Federation President on the new bill. "Will be" sounds a bit optimistic, I think.

Click to read more...

 

[HanSolo]

It's like they don't even want to win gold.

 

[ManyIdeas]

Let's see if it actually lasts

 

[Classicnamesup]

I thought Russia actually wanted to win something. This is a dumb idea, stop with the participation medals and let the best earn their spot

 

[1989]

So once every 3 Olympics, Russia will go home with less than 10 golds and be the laughingstock of the international athletics community?

Count me in... and if the USA want to follow suit, by all means...

 

[NewLife]

Haha wow. Olympics is a event for the best if you can't qualify, work harder or go civil.

 

[MikeModano9]

Why not just have the best in the sport from your country go? Like everyone else. How could this logically make any sense what so ever?

 

[OneMoreAstronaut]

It's like they don't even want to win gold.

Did you mean "fifth"?

 

[Halpysback*]

Huge slap in the face to guys like Ovechkin, Malkin and Kovalchuk who are fanatically devoted to representing Russia internationally. But after their performance in Sochi this doesn't really do much to screw up their chances. They need major management reorg before the players even start factoring in.

 

[QnebO]

Let's see if it actually lasts

For what I know about things like that, there will expections and exceptions of exceptions. All hockey players get exceptions if needed ect.. In the end, nothing changes, but perhaps few curling players change.

Not sure though, just a bet

 

[Yakushev72]

Anything that would harm Russia's chances of winning medals will never be put into effect by Putin! Ridiculous overkill to prevent another Plushenko situation!

 

[Zine]

This bill will never be passed. Not surprisingly it was initiated by some idiot from the LDPR.

 

[ecemleafs]

its just amazing how ****ed up so many politicians are.

 

[Aceonfire*]

This can't be real. I follow Slava also and like 90% of what he says sounds absolutely made up.

 

[FiLe]

Somebody's jumping the gun. It's just a proposal made by a single parliament representative, not in effect. And yeah, while Russia can be a crazy place, especially these days, I can't see this to be made into law.

 

[airbus1094]

A lot of stupid bills are proposed in any legislative system (the US including). We all know that this will never pass and nobody really takes it seriously. So there's really no point in making a whole thread about it and blowing everything out of proportion.

 

[Fantomas]

It's a bill. Malamud is a dummy.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/...chkin-malkin-datsyuk-kovalchuk-olympics-2018/

Article on bill.

It was proposed to prevent "older, injury prone" athletes from participating.

I would imagine the Russian Hockey Federation is lobbying against this.

 

[Theokritos]

No way this is going to pass.

 

[njdevil26]

No way this passes.

 

[Garl]

This bill is anti-Constitutional so it will not pass. And politicianhs wouldn't have voted for it anyway.

 

[Atas2000]

It's like they don't even want to win gold.

It's like ppl should check the facts before making it a scandal. There are tons of proposals for bills every day. There are by far more ridiculous ones there. 99% of them won't be even discussed in the Duma. Relax, ppl. This is a nice yellow press caliber dicussion topic.