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Ice hockey semi v US keeps Russia at Games - source
( 2002-02-22 15:39 ) (7 )

Russia had been ready to to pull out of the Winter Games if it had not been for Friday's ice hockey semifinal against the United States, a source close to the Russian Olympic team said on Thursday.

Exasperated Russian officials earlier gave International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge 24 hours to address their concern of "unfair" treatment at the Olympics.

Friday's clash on the ice, seen by many hockey fans in both countries as a rematch of the celebrated Olympic game of 22 years ago, has now taken on a new meaning for the Russians.

"It is more than just a game for them," the source said. "It will be like war, not the Cold War, but rather real war on the ice. It means everything for them now.

"If they beat the Americans, the people in Russia will forget all the problems, all the 'biased' judges, all the other stuff that has happened to them here."

Privately, Russian officials admit that if they were to pull out on the eve of the much anticipated showdown, people back home simply would not understand their decision.

"They said they just can't do it now because they believe they can beat the Americans and if they were to pull out now, it will just kill their hockey team," said the source.

"They will never be able to assemble such team ever again."

Russia, one of the six seeds in the 14-team tournament, are loaded with NHL stars like Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov, Alexei Yashin and Nikolai Khabibulin.

"This is more than just a game for these guys, it will be 'do or die' for them and their people."

It has not been a particularly good Olympics for the Russians with just five golds so far and the judging row over the pairs last week prompted repeated complaints about "a smear campaign" by the North American media.

They also suspect Olympic organisers of victimising their athletes over their dope testing programme.

After their hotly-favoured women's cross-country team was forced to withdraw from Thursday's relay following some abnormalities in blood tests, the Russians' patience snapped.

"It was the last straw," said a spokesman for the Russian Olympic Committee.

"This smear campaign has been going on against our team since day one and it just gets worse and worse."