This whole doping
allegation was nothing more than a political ploy to demonize and
embarrass Russia on the world stage ....as was stated by a reporter who
questioned one of the committee reps in an interview yesterday "How is
this whole process fair when over 3000 other athletes had no doping
testing whatsoever" ....when you consider that with the fact there is no
oversight over who handles the samples or their security from being
tampered with .....the judge in this case made the right decision ....so
this means these 28 Russian athletes should now be able to compete
under their own Russian Flag since they have been cleared of any doping
allegations now.
Dear international olympic committee, you have suspended the entire
russian olympic team (even those who had never tested positive for
performance enhancing drugs) because you claim that the abuse was so
widespread within some circles that it would be impossible for others
higher up not to have known about the violations. Does that mean you are
now going to suspend the entire team, due to the fact that the sexual
abuse of athletes was clearly so widespread that it would be impossible
for others higher up (USA Gymnastics, USOC) not to have known about
these criminal acts? using the olympics as a political tool of nato,
against Russia, is not only disgusting, it invalidates your entire
organization - an organization that has a history and reputation that
will outlive your selfish abuse of one of humanities rare places of
agreement and kinship. you might ruin these olympics, but you won't
destroy international relations through sport.
Victory of reason: Olympic ban reversal shows how inept the 'Russian doping' saga is
RT : 2 Feb, 2018
Today's decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to
uphold the appeals by Russian athletes could be described in one phrase:
Sanity prevailed.
Ever since "the Russian
doping scandal" began in the spring of 2016, the world of sport has been
divided into two camps: On one side, the “believers," those who came to
trust the allegations of what was described as "systematic state-sponsored subversion of the drug testing processes by the government of Russian Federation"
as voiced in the McLaren Report of 2016 and later repeated and expanded
on by Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, who fled Russia for the United States.
The
"believers" were and are opposed by the "skeptics," those who demanded
to see more concrete proof of guilt, other than Rodchenkov's testimony.
Here
are the big questions skeptics were asking – and so, indeed, should
anybody who doesn't automatically believe in everything the New York
Times is writing.
Is it feasible that the "systematic state-sponsored doping program"
would include only some Russian athletes of international caliber, but
not the others? Wouldn't those not listed feel enraged and upset? The
doping, after all, gives an unfair advantage, and in individual sport,
that little bit more translates into medals and material prizes. Yet,
not a single Russian athlete who participated in the Sochi Olympics went
on to support Rodchenkov’s claims.
Rodchenkov himself, by all
accounts, is a larger-than-life personality. Even those in Russia who
directly suffered from his allegations admit that he was/is a very
gifted biochemist – but one that is extremely full of himself. In all
his testimonies, one line is consistent: "I devised this and that and I
implemented it... me, me, me." That begs the question: How come top
Russian athletes did not stop performing at the highest levels after
Rodchenkov departed for the United States? If their results were "fueled
by doping," surely they would drop massively without Rodchenkov's magic
concoctions?
Stories about "steroid cocktails mixed with Chivas
Regal" and "KGB/FSB agents swapping urine samples through hidden doors"
are good for the pages of the New York Times and for CNN panels, but
also the least believable. Russian skiers and skaters seethe with anger
when hearing such tales. "I never drunk, or sipped on, or gurgled Scotch whisky in my life. I just hate the smell of it!" one Russian athlete said angrily.
Over
the last few years, the Russians paid big bucks to sign the best
coaches in winter sports. The best, essentially meaning, they made their
names coaching other, foreign athletes to victories. One such coach is
Markus Cramer from Germany, the former trainer of triple Olympic
champion Dario Cologna. Cramer insists that a doping program cannot be
implemented without the athletes' coach being in the know – and he has
zero evidence of that happening. Which leaves two distinct
possibilities: Either Cramer is lying or there's simply no doping, at
least in Russian cross country skiing. Nobody has ever questioned
Cramer's integrity, certainly not publicly.
Yet all of the above is dwarfed by that 800-pound-gorilla-in-the-room
issue concerning "Russian doping" that proponents of the theory refuse
to consider – no Russian international winter sport athlete was caught
doping in recent years, certainly not since the Sochi Olympics two years
ago. Zilch. Nada.
Top winter sport athletes – skiers, skaters,
lugers etc. – spend most of their time training and competing abroad,
mostly in Europe. A few people outside the immediate winter sporting
circles realize that, unlike, say, in soccer or basketball, where
athletes mostly compete at home, the winter sport World Cups and World
Championships are a constant "travelling circus" – one week here, next
one there. A consequence of this, is the fact that they are constantly
being checked on and tested by international anti-doping officials from
WADA.
Moreover, all top athletes, Russians included, are registered on The Anti-Doping Administration and Management System or ADAMS.
One of its functions is constant reporting of an athlete’s whereabouts,
so anti-doping officers know where to find this or that athlete. While
all the information regarding testing is considered to be very private,
anecdotally, a top athlete is subjected to no less than 40 (forty!)
urine and blood tests per year – some a lot more than that. That was the
case before the Sochi Olympics, and that remains the case now.
Just to repeat: Zero Russians were caught. And now it's time to ask
the really big question: Either the Russians learned how to hide their
doping practice so well that no amount of testing, anywhere, anytime
could catch them; or there is no proverbial black cat in that room and,
therefore, simply nobody to catch.
Imagine for a second that Russians – even without that "evil genius Rodchenkov" – are so good at covering their tracks, then how about the others? Wouldn't they be also tempted? The logic dictates that in that case, the entire international sport system is tainted – but nobody ever suggested that, not even hinted as much.
Imagine for a second that Russians – even without that "evil genius Rodchenkov" – are so good at covering their tracks, then how about the others? Wouldn't they be also tempted? The logic dictates that in that case, the entire international sport system is tainted – but nobody ever suggested that, not even hinted as much.
Those must have been the questions members of the CAS panel asked themselves while weighing their decisions.
There is a major difference between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and CAS. The former is, essentially, a private organization, free to set its own rules, standards and admission norms. It is also an organization increasingly dependent on sponsors and paying partners. The biggest of which happens to be US-based media companies.
There is a major difference between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and CAS. The former is, essentially, a private organization, free to set its own rules, standards and admission norms. It is also an organization increasingly dependent on sponsors and paying partners. The biggest of which happens to be US-based media companies.
CAS, however, is an impartial arbitration, a court that in practice operates under the Swiss law ("
… in the context of ordinary arbitration, the parties are free to
agree on the law applicable to the merits of the dispute. Failing such
agreement, Swiss law applies"). Unlike the IOC, it does not have to balance interests and demands of its sponsors against those of athletes.
For all the talk of "proven corruption of the Sochi 2014 Games," there's actually no evidence thereof – and today's decision by CAS is ample proof of that.
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