Two, Women

Much of the publicity surrounding the bobsleigh events at Sochi was centred on the women’s events and in particular the efforts of two converts from track and field appearing in American colours. The extrovert hurdler Lolo Jones had been at the centre of the media furore but it was Lauryn Williams, a member of the US team that won gold in the 4×100 metre relay at London 2012 who stood at the brink of a historic triumph. Only once in the history of the Olympic Games had an athlete won gold at both Summer and Winter Games – was Eddie Eagan’s unique feat about to be matched after 82 years?

The US team had switched pairings throughout the season but when the Olympic selection was announced she found herself partnering Elana Meyers, the silver medal winner from the 2013 World Championships, and therefore in a strong position to challenge for the title. Their main rivals appeared to be the reigning Olympic champion combination of Canadians Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse who were back together again after Moyse had spent most of the intervening Olympiad competing for Canada internationally at both rugby and cycling.

Meyers and Williams used their trademark explosive start to shine on the first day of competition and, whilst Meyers’ driving may not have been up to the standard of her Canadian rival, they recorded the fastest times on both runs. The Canadians responded by posting the best time on run 3 but the American team still maintained a healthy lead of .11 of a second as they entered the final run. Humphries had a clean and fast ride down the track on her 4th run putting pressure back on the American duo. Meyers and Williams made an excellent start but halfway down the run it deteriorated into a game of pinball between the walls of ice. They recovered a little but the damage was done and the Canadians became the first women to successfully retain an Olympic title. Whilst Williams didn’t quite join Eddie Eagan in the ranks of Olympic immortals, she did have the satisfaction of being only the 3rd woman after Clara Hughes and Christa Luding-Rothenburger to medal in both summer and winter. Jamie Greubel drove USA II into the bronze medal position ahead of a Dutch team which recorded its best result in Olympic bobsleigh by placing 4th.

In May 2016 WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) commissioned a report, the McLaren Report, to look into allegations of systematic Russian doping and a cover-up to avoid positives at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The report was released in two parts, in July and December 2016, and confirmed the allegations. In 2017 the IOC formed a commission to investigate this, headed by IOC Member Denis Oswald, and usually referred to as the Oswald Commission. In late October 2017 the Oswald Commission began to release its findings.

Olga Stulneva and Lyudmila Udobkina, who originally finished ninth, were disqualified in November-December 2017. Appeals were made immediately to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which are ongoing.

A special committee of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) was then charged with investigating these findings, but refused to acknowledge the disqualifications and allowed all the sliders to continue competing. The IOC was not happy with that ruling and the Executive Committee of the IBSF then appealed to the CAS, against its own sub-committee, to have that ruling overturned.