BEIJING – The drug cheats who take spots on the podium from deserving athletes rob them of so much more than medals.
There is a moment that comes at the end of a race, or a game or a program, when athletes realize they have finally won the medal they’ve chased their entire career. Pride and wonder washes over them in that instant, feelings that will stay with them the rest of their lives.
When they return home, everyone wants to relive their triumph, allowing them to bask in the glow of it all over again.
“The moment we won our semifinal (in Beijing), that was just pure happiness, relief,” said Norwegian curler Magnus Nedregotten, who won the silver medal in mixed doubles in Beijing, four years after he and his wife got bronze after a Russian curler tested positive.