Ukrainian skier pushes to keep Russians out of the Olympics

By ANDREW DAMPF
AP Sports Writer

COURCHEVEL, France (AP) — Ukrainian skier Ivan Kovbasnyuk can’t train at home in the Carpathian Mountains because war in the country has damaged the power grid to the point that there’s not enough energy to make the chairlifts operate. That’s just one of the reasons why he thinks athletes from Russia and Belarus shouldn’t be allowed to compete at the next Olympics. Kovbasnyuk says after competing in the combined race at the Alpine skiing world championships that “it’s not fair when Ukrainian sportsmen don’t have a chance to participate in the Olympics because they are dying on the battlefields while Russian athletes are just silently supporting (Vladimir) Putin’s crime regime.”