MOSCOW — The Russian curler stripped of a bronze medal for doping at last year’s Winter Olympics, Alexander Krushelnitsky, has dropped plans to appeal against his four-year ban.
Krushelnitsky’s agent, Andrei Mitkov, said on Friday in a statement that “yesterday (Krushelnitsky) decided to abandon the appeal to (the Court of Arbitration for Sport). Perhaps one day he will explain why.”
Mitkov had been appealing for donations to fund the appeal, though the Russian Curling Federation told Russian media the appeal would almost certainly fail.
Krushelnitsky won bronze with his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova in the mixed doubles event — Russia’s first medal under the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” name imposed as punishment for earlier doping scandals — but they lost the medal when he tested positive for meldonium.