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Why history will remember the Rio Games for the Russian mess

Simpleχity;1066174613 said:
Olympics 2016: Why history will remember the Rio Games for the Russian mess

The truth slapped everyone directly in the face. The IOC values TV revenue and illusion far more than sports-integrity.

Some people are upset because the IOC didn't ban the whole Russian team, but it's only right to be fair to individual athletes who were not doping. There should be no such thing as group guilt in something like this.
 
There should be no such thing as group guilt in something like this.
The world has known about the Russian-state doping program since 2014 when Russian athlete Yuliya Stepanova and her husband Vitaliy (who worked for the Russian Anti-Doping Agency) came forward.

The IAAP (the international body that administers track and field) suspended all Russian athlete's under its purview in 2015. Russia promised to reform its system.

In early 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sent an investigative team (McClaren) to Russia to document how Russia cheated at Sochi and see if Russia was reforming its system.

The McLaren Report (published in early July 2016) documented the Russian cheating in Sochi. It furthermore stated that WADA investigators were threatened by Russia's security service (FSB) and that many Russian athlete's went into hiding to avoid urine retesting.

I normally don't believe in collective punishment either ... but the massive Russian cheating here was collective and the silence was pervasive.
 
I think that the overwhelming evidence of state-sponsored doping in multiple sports justified a general ban on the Russian team. Banning the country, while allowing clean Russian individuals to compete independently would have been the sensible way to deal with this. Unfortunately, the IOC is driven more by commercial imperatives than by good sense or a commitment to clean sporting competition.

It's a disgrace, no doubt.
 
I think that the overwhelming evidence of state-sponsored doping in multiple sports justified a general ban on the Russian team. Banning the country, while allowing clean Russian individuals to compete independently would have been the sensible way to deal with this. Unfortunately, the IOC is driven more by commercial imperatives than by good sense or a commitment to clean sporting competition.

It's a disgrace, no doubt.

Athletes could compete independently? Is there a precedent for that?
 
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