The head of Luge Canada says the International Olympic Committee’s decision to give the 2014 relay bronze to his team because of Russian doping is vindication his program is doing things the right way.
“It’s a victory for clean sport,” executive director Tim Farstad said Friday. “The best-case scenario would’ve been the athletes receive the medal at the Olympic Games in Sochi 100 per cent, but that wasn’t possible in this situation.”
The IOC’s decision gives Canada its first luge medal ever after just missing the podium in the team event in 2014.
The committee ruled on the last 11 of 46 current doping cases, disqualifying the Russians from the Sochi results and banning them from the Olympics for life.
Calgary’s Sam Edney, Alex Gough, Justin Snith and Cochrane’s Tristan Walker will receive the medals in a dignified ceremony in Pyeongchang, where there are high hopes of more podium finishes.
Farstad said he got the surprising news in an email from a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
“Nothing official, just to stay congratulations on your medal, you guys deserve it and I said, what are you talking about?” he said. “And then it went from there.”
Despite the IOC’s landmark sanctions against the Russian team earlier this month, Farstad didn’t expect this decision.
“It’s not something you see in our sport, so obviously it came in the back of my mind, but I thought no, I don’t think in luge they would’ve done that,” he said.
The athletes are not commenting until they receive the medals, but in an interview earlier this month with 660 NEWS, both Walker and Snith talked about not only the fourth-place relay finish in the team event, but their doubles finish as well.
“Those missed podiums, I mean yeah they were four years ago, but that memory and that feeling of being so close is still quite, quite fresh and definitely still a little raw,” Snith said.
Walker shared the sentiment.
“The scars that two fourth-places leave, it’s been a large part of the process turning that from a missed opportunity into motivation,” he said. “There’s not much more motivating than 5-100ths of a second to keep you on the straight and narrow in your summer training season, that’s for sure.”
All four from the relay team will be competing in South Korea, joined by Kim McRae, Brooke Apshkrum, Mitch Malyk and Reid Watts
