As hammer thrower Sergey Litvinov tries to prepare for the Rio Olympics, Russia’s suspension from international athletics competitions over alleged state-sponsored doping is proving a real pain in the glute.
Just over seven weeks ahead of the games in Brazil the 30-year-old should be hitting peak form — but instead he is so short of opportunities to perform that he even had to compete with a painful gluteal spasm at a meet near Moscow this month.
“I wasn’t even ready, I had a small injury,” Litvinov told AFP of his second-place finish with a 74.67-metre throw.
“But I had to (compete) because there are few meets and you have to take advantage of them.”
Pending the decision by athletics world governing body IAAF due today on whether to lift Russia’s suspension ahead of the Rio Olympics, Russian athletes have been left in limbo and restricted to domestic track and field meets.
IAAF provisionally suspended Russia in November over a bombshell report containing evidence of state-sponsored doping and mass corruption in Russian athletics.
The suspension has left many athletes complaining that even if they are eventually allowed to compete in Rio they will face an uphill struggle to be fully ready.
They say they are recording subpar performances less than two month to the Olympics as the disqualification from international competition leaves them unable to gauge their level against the world’s best or pick and chose competitions.
“If I had stayed home and treated my injury, then there is a chance I wouldn’t be sufficiently mentally prepared for the main competition,” Litvinov said. “We used to be able to choose: today I’m staying home but tomorrow I’m going there.”

A ‘SLOW’ TIME
Hurdler Sergey Shubenkov is accustomed to hype surrounding international track and field events: the Olympics, the World Championships, Diamond League meets.
But stakes were lower for the 25-year-old world champion at a recent track and field meet held in a half-empty stadium just outside Moscow.
“13.41 is not a time you like to have in June,” Shubenkov told AFP about his first place finish in the 110-metre hurdles.
“There is a logical explanation for this. We’ve had a different kind of season.”
Russian athletics experts concurred: Shubenkov’s time was “slow” by his standards.
Less than one year ago, Shubenkov clocked a national record of 12.98 seconds to win gold in the 110m hurdles at the World Championships in Beijing, an event that is often the prelude to Olympic success.
High jumper Maria Kuchina, who also won gold at the 2015 World Championship after clearing 2.01m, was disappointed with her 1.90m performance, even though she finished first.
“We really need international competitions because the atmosphere is completely different, the competitors are completely different,” she said.
FAMILY HISTORY
Both Litvinov and Shubenkov hail from athletics family with a history of being sidelined from the Olympics.
Litvinov’s father — also named Sergey Litvinov — was a legendary Soviet hammer thrower who competed in the 1980 and 1988 Olympics but missed the 1984 Los Angeles after the Soviet Union and its Communist allies boycotted the Games — payback for the West’s snub of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Shubenkov’s mother, prominent heptathlete Natalya Shubenkova, also missed the Los Angeles Games and finished fourth at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, ending her illustrious career without a medal.
Shubenkov and Litvinov see parallels between Russia’s suspension and the 1984 Soviet boycott but recognise that their situation is different.
“It’s not our decision,” Shubenkov said of Russia’s exclusion from international competitions.
“In 1984 the Soviet government decided not to take part in the Olympics. Now we are being forced.”
Litvinov said the emotional rollercoaster Russian athletes have experienced over the past six months has drained him and lingering doubts that Russia might compete in Rio have undermined his mental preparation.
“When a person has a goal in their subconscious, it is much easier for him to go for it and not stop,” Litvinov said.
“When there are some kind of doubts (...) you go train and your 100-percent concentration can be 80, 90, 70 percent. It comes in waves. And you can feel it.”