Russian doping: IOC bans Russia from 2018 Winter Olympics

[Rob2012]

Quote

Russia has been banned from competing at next year's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang by the International Olympic Committee.

But Russian athletes who can prove they are clean would be allowed to compete in South Korea under a neutral flag.

It follows an investigation into allegations of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Games hosted by Russia in Sochi.

The IOC made the announcement on Tuesday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/42242007

Edited December 5, 2017 by Rob.

[Rob2012]

IOC to “exclude” Russian Deputy PM & ex Sports Minister (& 2018 World Cup chairman) Vitaly Mutko from any participation in ALL future Olympic Games.

[Ikarus360]

It had to be done. While i'm afraid PC2018 is going to be marred with even more controversy now, better to screw up one games than all of the Olympics reputation.

Sadly, a lot of people out there believes in the russophobia/american conspiracy boogieman and will refuse to admit their guilt. When you are dealing with such unredeemable people, these kind of punishments are needed to see if they wake up and smell the coffee. 

[StefanMUC]

It had to be done, but I still see it just as symbolic: Russian athletes will still be there, and while some might be clean, others won’t. And when they win, they win’t their anthem but Vlad will welcome them as heroes anyway.

[Rob2012]

Following the IAAF's stance makes sense. It might be 18 months too late, but I think they've got this exactly right. Question is, will Putin allow any athletes to go now?

[Ikarus360]

6 minutes ago, StefanMUC said:

It had to be done, but I still see it just as symbolic: Russian athletes will still be there, and while some might be clean, others won’t. And when they win, they win’t their anthem but Vlad will welcome them as heroes anyway.

As much as I hate the Russian NOC, i'm sure some of those athletes are actual honest people. It would be unfair to screw them over because their home country are assholes. 

 

4 minutes ago, Rob. said:

Following the IAAF's stance makes sense. It might be 18 months too late, but I think they've got this exactly right. Question is, will Putin allow any athletes to go now?

Putin backpedaled two days ago saying they would let their Russian athletes take part even if they're sanctioned because they don't want to take away the right to take part in the games to their athletes. 

[JMarkSnow2012]

One or two subtle touches in the official declaration, like this one:

Quote

The IOC may partially or fully lift the suspension of the ROC from the commencement of the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 provided these decisions are fully respected and implemented by the ROC and by the invited athletes and officials.

 

[Rob2012]

 

[Ikarus360]

Some people online are still mad about the decision, feeling all the Russian athletes should had been barred as a whole and not even take part as a Neutral team, feeling the decision was political. 

[Ikarus360]

Lol, this was just a couple of weeks ago. These kind of statements kind of makes one even more happy russians get screwed over badly. 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/nov/17/russian-olympic-official-says-doping-whistleblower-should-be-executed

Quote

Russian Olympic official says doping whistleblower should be executed

• Leonid Tyagachev says Grigory Rodchenkov ‘should be shot for lying’
• Tyagachev: Russia ‘are not going to beg on our knees’ over Winter Games

• A top Russian Olympic official has said Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistleblower who alleged the country ran a systematic doping programme, should be executed.

  “Rodchenkov should be shot for lying, like Stalin would have done,” said Leonid Tyagachev, who was the head of Russia’s Olympic Committee from 2001 to 2010 and remains its honorary president. He made the remarks in an interview with a Russian radio station.

Also apparently some of Rodchenkov friends indeed died on recent years on mysterious circumstances, like Nikita Kamaev who resigned shortly after the whole doping scandal exploded. This whole thing feels like a conspiracy novel

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/12157233/Former-head-of-Russian-anti-doping-agency-dies-of-heart-attack.html

[Ikarus360]

 

[Nacre]

54 minutes ago, StefanMUC said:

It had to be done, but I still see it just as symbolic: Russian athletes will still be there, and while some might be clean, others won’t. And when they win, they win’t their anthem but Vlad will welcome them as heroes anyway.

It seems unlikely that Russian athletes will choose to participate even if they are allowed to. They will be seen as traitors if they do.

[krow]

absolutely correct. they were hardly missed on the track in rio, and while it will feel a little different without any russians, but they need to be held accountable. hope to see more of this going forward.

[baron-pierreIV]

The bigger question is, will Russia now encourage the crazy fat boy from the North to really mess up the WOGs?  That would endanger China's chances for medals -- so the developments today probably heighten a simmering Russia-China feud on Kim Jung Un and the Winter Games.  

Edited December 5, 2017 by baron-pierreIV

[mr.bernham]

Thank god. Finally the IOC is acting with a backbone. Russia has so drastically impaired the image of the movement, through the boondoggle that was Sochi, to the doping scandals. Good riddance.

[Ikarus360]

1 hour ago, baron-pierreIV said:

The bigger question is, will Russia now encourage the crazy fat boy from the North to really mess up the WOGs?  That would endanger China's chances for medals -- so the developments today probably heighten a simmering Russia-China feud on Kim Jung Un and the Winter Games.  

China only cares about themselves. I doubt they even care for what's going on atm and are more focused on planning their 2022 games.

Also if some russian athletes are going to PC2018 since Putin gave approval to that possibility I doubt they want to put at risk the lifes of their russian citizens. After all that was the pretext to invade Crimea 3 years ago 

[Ikarus360]

7 minutes ago, mr.bernham said:

Thank god. Finally the IOC is acting with a backbone. Russia has so drastically impaired the image of the movement, through the boondoggle that was Sochi, to the doping scandals. Good riddance.

More like WADA threatened them to reveal some of IOC dirty little secrets to the public if they didn't banned Russia. If they really wanted to do this because of some sense of morality they should had banned Russia in 2016 too. 

[Mainad]

4 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

Lol, this was just a couple of weeks ago. These kind of statements kind of makes one even more happy russians get screwed over badly. 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/nov/17/russian-olympic-official-says-doping-whistleblower-should-be-executed

Also apparently some of Rodchenkov friends indeed died on recent years on mysterious circumstances, like Nikita Kamaev who resigned shortly after the whole doping scandal exploded. This whole thing feels like a conspiracy novel

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/12157233/Former-head-of-Russian-anti-doping-agency-dies-of-heart-attack.html

 

That just about says everything we need to know about the character of the men in charge of the Russian Olympic team. Case closed!

[AmaniS]

So what does the OAR uniform look like?

 

I feel sorry for those that will now get metals after cheater are stripped.  There should be some kind of ceremony for those attain metals.  Something during the Olympics. Something that everyone will see, not just those of us that pay attention. They were robbed that also.

[Durban Sandshark]

Agreed that this punishment issued from the IOC on the Russians had to be done. It's too widespread, corrupt, systematic, and institutionalized, to say nothing of the officials and entourages. The seeds were sown following Vancouver 2010 with Russia's disappointing performance there and with the nation coming up as hosts craving the need for a strong medal showing. The Kremlin and the rest Russian government wanted to make a big splash with a quick fix and fired coaches and trainers. But they were screaming at the wrong enemies and turned to doping to regain prominence. All in all, nobody wins in the end, sadly. Some of this is irreversible and will have seen and unforeseen consequences for years to come. The Russian Olympic Committee and many of its athletes are now officially tarnished for the forseeable future. You feel bad for the genuinely clean Russian Winter Olympians who if they head over to South Korea will be under the "humiliation and degredation" of marching and participating under the Olympic flag and neutral colors with no Russia references following the glory of being hosts from the previous Winter Olympics four years ago being termed "Olympic Athletes from Russia". VGTRK and Channel One (and maybe Gazprom-owned Match TV) surely will make good on its threat not to show Pyeongchang 2018 now with low national interest. Sochi's legacy obviously The KHL won't allow its American and Canadian players to compete--and I seriously don't think Russia won't compete at all in ice hockey now. We may not even see Viktor Ahn/Ahn Hyun-Soo make his anticipated and intriguing return to South Korea in short track unless he changes back his allegience to South Korea. It has failed to protect clean athletes and Russia must learn to. Russia's sports system must change, obviously, going forward.

Look, the Russian Olympic Committee certainly isn't going to stew away in private walking away. But it will be hard with appeals. 

[Ikarus360]

What Russia has done to Olympism in a nutshell (not that the entire fault is on them, though)

[JMarkSnow2012]

7 hours ago, AmaniS said:

So what does the OAR uniform look like?

Orange, maybe?

Meanwhile, on a related topic, David took this photo from his TV screen last night:

Even in TV scheduling, the Russians were being manipulative!

Apparently the "breaking news" coverage was, as you'd expect, a very detailed documentary with everything from weeping Russian athletes to whataboutery on medical exemptions (Simone Biles offered as a major example)- via the suggestion that WADA needs major "victories" in order to justify its ever-escalating budget ...

[Quaker2001]

http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2017/12/06/vladimir-putin-russia-olympic-boycott/

[Ikarus360]

Glad Putin was reasonable, at least in the end. Problem is we're going to have to deal with a lot of russian bots in social media whining about Russia not being there.

Also it's funny many still believe the quality of the games will go down. Like, have people forgotten how badly Russia did in Vancouver 2010? (not even making it to the top 10). The moment they jumped to the number one spot in less than 4 years is when everyone knew something was fishy.

[Nacre]

I am genuinely surprised that they will be encouraging their athletes to compete. The best possible response for Russia would be for them to win the gold in ice hockey and do well in the medal table with clean Russian athletes. But they only placed fourth at Sochi and Turin, were awful in Vancouver, and have done badly in recent winter sports events with clean athletes.