Skeleton slider Martins Dukurs, one of the greatest Winter Olympians of all time without a gold medal, said he intends to compete another four years for another opportunity to fill his resumé, according to Latvian media.
It was thought that the Latvian, who turns 34 on Saturday, might retire after his fourth-place finish in PyeongChang following silver medals in 2010 and 2014.
In January, the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation reported that Dukurs and older brother Tomass Dukurs had retired from World Cup competition.
Now that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Dukurs, nicknamed “Superman,” won five world championships and eight straight World Cup season titles. At the last three Olympics, Dukurs saw a host-country slider take gold — Canadian Jon Montgomery in 2010, Russian Alexksandr Tretiyakov in 2014 and South Korean Yun Sungbin last month.
Tretiyakov’s gold medal was stripped on Nov. 22 as part of Russian athlete doping sanctions from the Sochi Games, making it appear likely that Dukurs would be elevated to gold. But then Tretiyakov and other Russians were reinstated by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Feb. 1.
“The evidence collected was found to be insufficient to establish that an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) was committed by the athletes concerned,” CAS said Feb. 1.
Latvia, apart from its time competing as part of the Soviet Union, has two Summer Olympic gold medalists (gymnast Igors Vihrovs and BMX rider Māris Štrombergs) but none from the Winter Games. Its eight Winter Olympic medals are the most by any nation without a gold.
Dukurs’ path to 2022 gold appears it must go through three men who are a decade younger than him — Yun, Olympic silver medalist Nikita Tregubov of Russia and Chinese up-and-comer Geng Wenqiang, who was 13th in PyeongChang but should have a big home-track boost in Beijing.
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