Dispute Over Test Results Hints at Lingering Mistrust of Russia (Published 2022) (2024)

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BEIJING — The concern manifested most obviously in the masks, the ones suddenly worn on the benches, by the referees and, remarkably, by the women playing Olympic hockey.

The Beijing Games, cloaked in rhetoric about sportsmanship and shared values and unity at last week’s opening ceremony, veered abruptly into an exhibition of suspicion on Monday, when uncertainty over the Russian team’s coronavirus testing led to a 65-minute delay of a game against Canada. When the game finally began, after a Canadian player was pulled from her team’s lineup because of what her coach characterized as an inconclusive test, it did so under a health precaution rarely seen during elite competition: Every player was wearing a mask.

The episode, which the International Ice Hockey Federation formally attributed to “safety and security concerns,” was also a glimpse into lingering Western skepticism of a Russian Olympic apparatus with a long record of bending or breaking rules.

Although Canadian officials avoided accusing their Russian counterparts of any misconduct, they had reason for concern: The Russian squad spent part of last week in quarantine after a series of positive tests among team members.