Father and son hammer throwers share Olympic pain

Russian hammer thrower Sergey Litvinov and his father have a lot in common: a first name, an athletics discipline and now a history of missing the Olympics.
The suspension of Russia’s athletics federation over “state-sponsored” doping will deny the 30-year-old a shot at Olympic glory, just as the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games did for his father and coach, legendary Soviet hammer thrower Sergey Litvinov.
Father and son recognise the striking parallels between their careers and wish the stinging memories of 1984 had not returned more than thirty years later.
“There is nothing good in this,” Litvinov Sr. told AFP about seeing his son sidelined from Rio like he was in 1984.
Unlike many banned Russian athletes, Litvinov and his father have been openly critical of Russia sports authorities and their inability to reform the scandal-ridden anti-doping system in time for track and field athletes to compete in Rio.
Litvinov Sr., 58, thinks that Cold War-era politics weighed into the decision to keep Russians away. He blamed the country’s sports authorities for their “passive approach” to the problem.  His son, who competed at the youth level and the 2009 world championships for Germany before a falling-out with the federation there saw him change his allegiance, has rejected the popular notion in Russia that the ban is a Western conspiracy aimed at eliminating strong competitors.
“I don’t have a negative attitude towards the West,” he told AFP after a consolation track and field in Moscow held for the banned athletes.
“You have to look for the problem within yourself first. There is no smoke without fire.”
Litvinov Sr., who won silver at the Moscow Olympics, had his sights set on gold for Los Angeles, having won his first world title one year ahead of the Games.
 The Soviet boycott devastated him.
“A great depression swept over me,” Litvinov Sr. said. “It took me a whole year to return to my normal self.”
Although he returned to win gold at the boycott-free 1988 Seoul Games — Olympics in which Litvinov said the sports world could finally breathe — his absence from the Los Angeles Games left a stain on his stellar career. “I could have had a chance to go for gold,” he said. “But what can I say? It didn’t happen and that’s it.”
Litvinov Sr. declined to answer questions whether he had doped or had witnessed the use of performance-enhancing drugs among his Soviet teammates. But he said that doping “has always existed.”The younger Litvinov insists he has never doped and says he has paid the price for refusing to cheat.
In a letter to IAAF chief Sebastian Coe, Litvinov Jr. implored international athletics chiefs to outline what Russia needs to do to return to international competition.
 “Just please show me a clear way,” he wrote.
“Otherwise the situation is out of my control and I am dependent on my federation, which does not make me optimistic.”Russian athletes in other sports have been cleared to compete in Rio after the IOC shied away from a blanket ban and called on international sports federations to determine Russians’ eligibility. That sparked fierce criticism from some anti-doping agencies and athletes outside Russia.
Litvinov — who missed the cut for Russia’s 2012 Olympic team — says that his choice to compete without performance-enhancing drugs had seen him lag behind other competitors.
“The pharmaceutical path doesn’t interest me,” he said. “I’m interested in the training process, in competing against myself.”
Litvinov shrugged at the prospect of competing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 when he will be 34.
“I didn’t make it to the 2012 London Games because of my own stupidity, now I’m not going because of others’ stupidity,” he said. “Maybe for Tokyo there will be other kinds of stupidity that won’t allow me to go.”
He said he will keep training, no matter the uncertainties ahead.
His father has little advice about the future but pledged he will be there to tweak his son’s technique.
“I try to be more of a coach than a father,” Litvinov Sr. said. “I don’t give him advice on life. Just on the hammer throw.”