Sochi "will not host the 2017 bobsleigh and skeleton World Championships," according to the BBC. The Int'l Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation said that it would not be "prudent" to hold the championships in Russia, a country accused of state-sponsored doping. A new host city "will be named for the March event in the forthcoming days." According to Russia's RIA news agency, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the decision to strip Sochi of the championships was "politicised and without grounds." The exec committee of the IBSF said it made the decision "because it wanted to focus on sport rather than accusations." One senior figure inside the sport said that teams "worried about the safety of officials and athletes, and about the impact of competing in a country that was not compliant" with WADA regulations. The source said, "On a practical level, many teams were worried about the evidence that Russian laboratories had been opening tamper-proof bottles. If they have opened these bottles to help their athletes, what is to stop them also opening them to tamper with samples from any athlete in the competition?" (BBC, 12/13).
