No Rio for the Russians

[Novelty_Bobble]

@AK84

The real world is much more complicated than a simple this or that possibility. Just because it is political, does not mean that there was also not outright cheating.

you are assuming it has a political element, I’m not convinced of that. Mr. Putin would certainly like the fact that you think it is though.

If you think that European, N American and Chinese athletes are not doped to the nines and the sports federations are not at least negligent in stopping them than you are naive.

Wherever there is reward there is cheating. Are some federations complicit? probably, Russia certainly seems to be and so quite rightly are getting hammered. It is a policy of despair to suggest that we do nothing to the massive scale, state-sponsored, well-evidenced corruption in Russia unless everywhere else is squeaky-clean.

I hope you agree that there is a world of difference between “negligent” and “actively complicit” and that if you are going to start cracking down then it is right to start with…

a) the biggest offenders (because they affect the greatest number of clean athletes)
b) those that are further toward the “actively complicit” end of the scale (because they are going to be the hardest to catch)

The problem with doping is manifold, not least the heavy emphasis on getting positive tests results to trigger suspensions; see Lance Armstrong. All you have to do is ensure you don’t get a positive result and you are home free. :mad:

I don’t really know what point you are making here, isn’t a positive result the whole point?

Bit like FIFA scandal last year, when initially everyone was stating how much FIFA corruption was caused by Africans and S Americans, ooopps turned out that UEFA and Europeans were also as corrupt.

I don’t recall that at all. FIFA was considered rotten through and through, especially Sepp Blatter (Swiss). The rumours of corruption were world-wide.

[That_Don_Guy]

CAS upholds the Russian track & field Olympic ban.

Apparently, it’s now up to the IOC to decide if any athletes can compete independently.

[dalej42]

Looks like the bribes came through, there is no blanket ban on Russian teams competing in Rio, it’ll be up to individual sports governing bodies to allow Russia to compete. An opportunity for a second round of bribes .

[That_Don_Guy]

Now you know why there is no “official medal count” - so the IOC doesn’t have to worry about counting “tainted” medals.

The 2004 gold medal counts were adjusted - in July, 2016.