Russia banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics

[jorian]

Individual, "clean", Russian athletes will be allowed to compete as a neutral team with no flag or anthem. They will be called an "Olympic Athlete from Russia."

Given his propensity to deal harshly with critics, I wonder if Putin will allow them to go? Putin is of course clinging to the old "rogue employee" defense claiming the testing lab was compromised by a couple of bad actors rather than a coordinated campaign to put as many Russians on the podium in Sochi as possible.

It's a bummer for "clean" athletes and for the athletes from other countries who may not face the best as a result of IOC prohibitions.

IOC bans Russia from 2018 Winter Olympics - CBC Sports - Road to the Olympic Games winter sports

[1990C4S]

It will be interesting to see what the KHL does with hockey players now....

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by jorian

Individual, "clean", Russian athletes will be allowed to compete as a neutral team with no flag or anthem. They will be called an "Olympic Athlete from Russia."

Does anyone think there are "clean" Russian athletes?

Not me, I'd wager they are all dirty.

[CurtEgerer]

This is like the Mafia banning the Hell's Angels. Putin must not have been willing to pay the IOC's shakedown money this year

The IOC's True Ideals: Corruption and Greed

[Porsche-O-Phile]

The IOC is more corrupt than even Russia, and that’s saying something!

[red-beard]

There should be 2 Olympics. One clean, one Frankenstein!

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by red-beard

There should be 2 Olympics. One clean, one Frankenstein!

You mean one normal, one trans?

[tevake]

Thinking about the athletes there that have been training and preparing for years for this event coming in three months. To have the plug pulled at this point seems almost cruel. If this is the correct response to past actions, why not decide years ago?

Cheers Richard

[BK911]

Maybe Im a skeptic, but I doubt many professional or Olympic athletes are truly clean.
Maybe clean enough to pass a scheduled p test, but not 100% clean throughout their entire lifelong training.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by tevake

Thinking about the athletes there that have been training and preparing for years for this event coming in three months. To have the plug pulled at this point seems almost cruel. If this is the correct response to past actions, why not decide years ago?

Cheers Richard

The decision has been on the table for years. No one should be surprised.

For most athletes the Olympics are only one event in a series. Now they have one less (albeit large) event.

[jorian]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

The decision has been on the table for years. No one should be surprised.

For most athletes the Olympics are only one event in a series. Now they have one less (albeit large) event.

I am friends with a former Olympic medalist. We talked about this very thing. She said she would have been devastated if a ban would have affected her chances of competing. It is theoretically "just another competition" but she said it was the highlight of her athletic career.

I don't personally believe that the majority of athletes are juicing (call me naive) and I don't think the Russian program is inherently corrupt. Integrity of the games is important, it's just too bad the IOC is the one trying to clean itself up.

[Jeff Alton]

After spending years planning the air defense for the 2010 games, I can say I have no use at all for the IOC. I could rant on, but...

That said, good for them. The programs have been in place form decades as a way to help them feel good about themselves vs the rest of the world. Sadly though, it is insulting to the athletes that are clean.

[Borders Reivers]

"Olympics" is just another fake pro-athlete venue to sell advertising and trinkets. Nothing worthwhile unless selling tv advertising is your thing.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by jorian

I don't personally believe that the majority of athletes are juicing (call me naive) and I don't think the Russian program is inherently corrupt. Integrity of the games is important, it's just too bad the IOC is the one trying to clean itself up.

Read up on the lengths they went to to smuggle clean urine into the test area. Was that done for a select few athletes? No, it was done for the majority of athletes. Some knowingly doping, some were doped unknowingly.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-russia-winter-olympics-20171205-story.html

The impetus for the IOC’s ruling Tuesday was the avalanche of evidence that Russian athletes benefited from a state-engineered doping program at the Winter Games that Russia hosted in Sochi in 2014. The cheating methodology had a whiff of le Carre. Russian athletes were given steroids stirred into either Chivas or vermouth. Russian intelligence agents helped swap out tainted urine samples with clean urine samples obtained from the athletes months earlier. The urine sample exchanges were done at night at an Olympic testing laboratory, through a small cut-out in the wall.

Or the U18 hockey team that was being treated with heart medication (meldonium), then they had to be pulled from the World Championships when they were caught.

https://www.foxsports.com/nhl/story/russia-u18-hockey-team-replaced-doping-scandal-meldonium-world-championships-040616

It was absolutely corrupt, top to bottom. Their testing was a sham.

No doubt there were many innocent athletes, but the Russians do not deserve to compete.

[legion]

Originally Posted by tevake

Thinking about the athletes there that have been training and preparing for years for this event coming in three months. To have the plug pulled at this point seems almost cruel. If this is the correct response to past actions, why not decide years ago?

Cheers Richard

This. Much like F1, I imagine Olympic training has become a game of doing everything that hasn't been banned yet. I imagine that most Olympic athletes have done things to their bodies that will have severe consequences later in life. Just maintaining extremely low body fat for years can do organ damage....

Well, except for the Olympic Skeet and Trap shooters, those seem to be some old dudes (and ladies) that wouldn't benefit much from juicing.

[1990C4S]

I have some sympathy for innocent athletes caught up in this, with two caveats. If you prepare for an event that happens every four years you have to also prepare for the fact that you might miss out, be it by injury, performance, or politics. And two, the innocent athletes are the minority, and some of them are still allowed to compete.

I just have a hard time believing athletes were juiced and never figured it out. But there is no doubt some were screwed over.