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The Russians sang their national anthem after hockey Gold. |
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29.03.2018 г. 12:28 |
Russians Sang Banned
Anthem after Winning Gold
Kirill Kaprizov managed to score in overtime in order to lead the
Olympic Athletes from Russia, OAR, right past a lively Germany to a
final score of 4 - 3.
The team won the Gold medal for Men’s Ice Hockey, and
Kaprizov then joined his teammates to defy a ban and sing the Russian
national anthem during the ceremony.
Punishment at Pyeongchang
for Russia
As punters who engage in the the sports
betting NZ know, Russians were competing as neutral athletes
at the Games in Pyeongchang as punishment for a drawn-out doping
scandal.
They came back from one-goal down thanks to Nikita Gusev scoring with
less than a minute to go in regulation time.
This forced overtime in one of the most fantastic finals in the history
of Olympic hockey!
The Winners Sang Their
Hearts Out
At their medal ceremony, the players sang the Russian national anthem
over the sound of the Olympic paean at the Gangneung Hockey Centre -
despite the fact that they were barred from raising their flag or
singing their national song, both here and in other stadiums in
Europe and beyond.
The game took place mere hours after the International Olympic
Committee, IOC, decided against restoring the squad’s Olympic
status.
Had this been done, the winners would have been allowed to march under
the Russian flag when the the closing ceremony took place.
It All Went According to
Plan
Ilya Kovalchuk, the Assistant Captain for the team, revealed that the
players had in fact talked beforehand about whether they should sing
the anthem were they to win, and everyone agreed that they would. Kovalchuk, the all-time number one Russian
goal-scorer in Olympic games, stated that they all knew that
they would do it if they managed to win.
When they sang the anthem they were in direct violation of the IOC
neutrality rules, which had been imposed on the country as part of
sanctions which were in place to punish the nation for its systematic
doping across a variety of sports.
The First Gold Since 1992
This victory marked the first time a Russian team have won a Gold medal
in hockey since back in 1992, when the Unified Team, as they were then
known by, representing Russian and five other former Soviet republics,
beat Canada and took the Olympic Championship.
Kovalchuk commented on how much the win meant to the team, referring to
the ‘92 game when he did. He went on to say that this win was
a dream for him since childhood, when he began
playing, at just five-years old.
A Wonderful Game to Watch
The game was thrilling right from the get-go, and it ended with flair,
too: an ideal one-time slap shot made by Kaprizov that flew past the
German goaltender Danny aus den Birken with Germany’s Patrick
Reimer off for having his stick too high.
The puck had been fed to Kaprizov by the other Russian hero for the
game, Gusev, who had netted two goals in the third period, including
the one that tied the match and brought the overtime into play.
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