I finally got a chance to peruse the damning report into Russian doping by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, so I now have a slightly better understanding into the scope of this mess. WADA immediately called for the entire Russian team to be banned from Rio, and the IOC held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, after which they said they would "explore their legal options."
The IOC has been hearing contrasting opinions from all across the globe regarding what should be done about the Russian team. Before the report was even released, Canada and the United States had a letter already prepared urging the IOC to issue a blanket ban. After it came out, a number of other countries joined that chorus. It's not that easy for the IOC, though. The Rio Olympics are just two and a half weeks away, and they're still waiting for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to decide on the fate of Russia's track team. And you know that the IOC and the Russian athletes would be right back in the CAS if others were banned.
It would be an unprecedented step to keep Russia out of the Games entirely, and I don't think it's a precedent the IOC wants to set. Because it would be a dangerous one. Nations have been barred for political reasons (most notably South Africa, which didn't compete from 1964-88 because of apartheid, and World War II losers Germany and Japan weren't invited to the 1948 Games), and of course, there were the boycotts in 1980 and 1984. But no nation has ever been held out of Olympic competition because of doping. Not even the East Germans, who had that state-run doping program for years.
Perhaps the biggest argument against keeping the entire Russian Olympic Team out of Rio, though, is that there are a number of international federations that they want Russia there. In fact, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations has publicly declared its opposition to such a move, stressing the need for "individual justice" instead. There are also a number of sports that weren't mentioned in the McLaren report. If there's no evidence of doping in those sports, what are your grounds for excluding that team? Guilt by association?
As IOC President Thomas Bach, in the best quote by anyone regarding this scandal, said (and I'm paraphrasing here), "You can't punish a badminton player for rules manipulation at the Winter Games." His obvious implication there is that if Russia was cheating during the Sochi Games, that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the summer-sport athletes who'd be in Rio. That would be like the NCAA giving somebody a bowl ban because their women's soccer team committed a violation.
Volleyball is one sport where no Russian doping problem seems to exist. The FIVB was the first international federation to come out in support of Russia. The FIG (gymnastics) is another. No Russian gymnasts were implicated. And the dominant Russian synchronized swimming team has apparently been doing it clean. And how about Darya Klishina, the one track & field athlete who's been given approval to go?
A valid point made by a high-ranking European sports official (I've read so many articles about this in the last two days that I've forgotten which points were in which and names are getting mixed up) is that doping isn't exclusive to Russia. But where are the calls to ban Kenya? While, I can't say I completely agree with the Kremlin's claims of "Western persecution," it certainly does seem like selective enforcement. Especially since the U.S. has three athletes on its men's track & field team that have previously served doping suspensions (Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and LaShawn Merritt).
Also, and this is something I've said repeatedly throughout this ordeal, a ban of the entire Russian Olympic team seems totally unjust and completely disproportionate. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Yes, there was obvious wrongdoing. Blood samples were changed, sometimes in the middle of the night. But how can you say for sure that the athletes who had their samples swapped knew it? Likewise, how can you say that every Russian who took performance-enhancing drugs was aware of it? Or had a choice? The East Germans didn't.
Does that excuse every athletes from blame? Of course not. I'm sure there were plenty of Russians who knew exactly what they were doing. They deserve to be banned. But there can't possibly be a person who honestly believes that every Russian athlete in every sport was doping, and doing so deliberately. From what it sounds like, though, this was a decision made by the higher-ups, and they're the ones who deserve to be punished.
One thing in the McLaren report that I do believe is that this all started after Russia's disappointing showing at the 2010 Winter Olympics. They were embarrassed by their performance in Vancouver and didn't want to repeat it on home soil four years later. That's why it wasn't a surprise to see that the three main events that raised doping red flags were the 2013 World Track & Field Championships (in Moscow), the 2014 Winter Olympics (in Sochi) and the 2015 World Swimming Championships (in Kazan). What do those three events have in common? Maybe that's the root of the problem.
After its Executive Board teleconference earlier today, the IOC was very deliberate in its choice of words. They stopped short of prohibiting Russia from entering any athletes in the Rio Games, aware of the legal challenge that would present. Instead, they instituted a number of smaller reforms that are no less significant. For example, no member of the Russian Ministry of Sport will be issued a credential for Rio, and neither will anyone named in the report. They're also going to reanalyze the samples provided by every Russian athlete in Sochi.
But, perhaps most importantly, they won't organize or promote any sports event or meeting in Russia. That includes the 2019 European Games, which Russia was set to host. Beyond that, though, they don't want any winter sports held in Russia at all right now. They've encouraged winter sports federations to pull any events already scheduled for the country and move them somewhere else, as well as not scheduling future championships there. It's too late to do anything about next year's Confederations Cup and the 2018 World Cup, but you know FIFA's monitoring what's going on, too.
There's a lot more to this story, and this is still a long way from over. I'm sure we'll spend the next two and a half weeks until the Olympics start talking about it. And we definitely will as the Games progress, whether or not Russia's there.
Keeping them out would be a major statement. But it would be the wrong one. Because it wouldn't be a move "in defense of clean sport." It would be to appease the very vocal groups that are calling for Russia's heads. That's not "justice," and it's just as wrong.
If these allegations are proven true, then, fine, ban them from Pyeongchang and even Tokyo if you want. But let's not rush to judgment. And let's not take it out on the athletes. Especially the innocent ones who just want to fulfill their Olympic dreams.
No comments:
Post a Comment