I'm going to use this week to catch up on some topics that I've been meaning to talk about, but haven't gotten the chance to yet. One of those things is the Russian doping scandal, which is evidently a lot worse than we all originally thought. The complete McLaren Report has been released, and it's even more damning than the one issued in July. According to the new report, there were more than 1,000 positive tests across 30 sports.
All of this has had credibility from the start because pretty much every detail of Yuliya Stepanova's account has been corroborated. Just like Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the doping lab at the 2014 Olympics, provided play-by-play commentary of exactly how he was instructed to cover-up positive tests by state officials. After fleeing Russia, Rodchenkov turned over hundreds of pages of emails to WADA, describing in vivid detail a deeply corrupt "institutional conspiracy."
But the extent of the conspiracy is greater than anyone could've possibly realized, and it started a whole lot earlier than everybody thought. It goes back further than the 2013 Track & Field World Championships in Moscow and the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Russian coaches and athletes have been involved in doping since 2011, and there's government involvement in covering up positive tests nearly as long. We just didn't know how deep it went. It's not just track & field. It's pretty much every sport, including Paralympic sports. Virtually every Russian medalist at the 2012 and 2014 Olympics has had their results called into question, and a number have already been disqualified.
The names of the athletes have been turned over to the international federations, who now have the unenviable task of figuring out what type of discipline to levy. The report said that 15 medal winners in London had been protected by Russian officials from testing positive prior to the Games. Of those 15, 10 have since had their medals taken away after their samples were retested.
Not surprisingly, there are calls from the international sporting community, led by the Americans and Germans, for a blanket ban on all Russians in all sports. The Russian track & field federation, the first one implicated in the scandal, has been suspended since last November, which led to their not being allowed to participate in the sport at the Rio Olympics. That suspension will remain in effect into 2017, and there's no indication as to when it might end, despite pleas from the influential Yelena Isinbayeva (and others) that Russia be reinstated.
A lot of people want the IOC to take the ultimate step and ban the Russian team entirely from the 2018 Olympics. They didn't do that for Rio, so it seems unlikely they'll do it for Pyeongchang...mainly because the Russian Olympic Committee isn't implicated. It's the Russian Sports Ministry. Although, I'll admit, I'm not sure what the difference between those two organizations is, and I also find it highly improbable that one was completely unaware of the other's actions, especially if it was, as the report indicates, a sophisticated, state-run system.
What seems more likely is that other sports will follow track & field's lead (and the IOC's suggestion) and avoid scheduling events in Russia. The World Bobsled and Skeleton Championships are supposed to take place in Sochi in a few months, and a number of nations have either already pulled out or threatened to if the event isn't moved. Although, the International Biathlon Union scheduled its 2021 World Championships for Russia after the IOC mandate came out. We're also way too far into the preparations for the 2018 World Cup for FIFA to even consider moving the tournament (with FIFA involved, the host country's doping problems may only be the second-biggest scandal they'll have to deal with at the 2018 World Cup anyway).
That seems to be the most logical course of action. Because this whole thing started after the Russians were disappointed in their (presumably clean) showing at the Vancouver Olympics, and they refused to be "embarrassed" like that again on home soil four years later. Likewise, Russia wanted to put on a show as the hosts of the 2013 World Championships in track & field. You have to wonder how bad this gets if Russia doesn't host those two major events.
From all indications, it wasn't limited to the Moscow World Championships or the Sochi Olympics. Not by a long shot. As McLaren said: "It is impossible to know just how deep and far back this conspiracy goes. For years, international sports competitions have unknowingly been hijacked by Russians. Coaches and athletes have been playing on an uneven field. Sports fans and spectators have been deceived." He also described the program as "a cover-up that evolved over the years from uncontrolled chaos to an institutionalized and disciplined medal-winning strategy and conspiracy."
Athletes and sports fans worldwide are rightfully angry about this entire situation, and Russia absolutely deserves to be punished. However, and I know I'm in the minority for saying this, but I think it needs to be said, this doesn't seem to be much different from what the East Germans were doing in the 1970s and 80s. What I mean by that is, while these athletes may be "guilty" of doping, how many of them had a choice? The East German athletes were forced to take performance-enhancing drugs. I'm not saying the Russians were. But I'm not saying they weren't either. Of those 1,000 athletes named in the McLaren Report, I guarantee a good number of them never intended to cheat.
You're responsible for what you put in your body, so I'm not making any excuse for any of those Russian athletes that failed a test. But the guilt is not theirs alone. And that might be the saddest part. Because the athletes and sports fans from elsewhere in the world aren't the only victims of the Russian doping scandal. A scandal which will likely claim many more victims before we can fully trust Russian sport again.
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