Russia banned from Rio?

[Shamhnan Insir]

It would appear that after lengthy investigations and court procedures, Russia has been banned from participating in track and field events at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/36855244

Further allegations of state sponsored doping are yet to be fully investigated which threaten total ban from all Olympic participation, however the initial ruling is already pretty damning. The IAAF has welcomed the ruling which it supported, with Lord Coe expressing is disappointment that the situation had become so serious.

Personally I'm quite happy that the Cas committee and the IAAF have taken such a strong course of action over this. Recently the shadow of doping rumours, claims and bans has tarnished the world of athletics and quite frankly little serious action seemed to have been taken.
Whilst it still has its problems, I'm glad that something has been done in the Olympic athlete world to show that cheating and corruption will not be tolerated regardless of who you are, unlike in FIFA for example.

What say you NSG? Was the ruling correct, is the punishment to harsh, do you feel sorry for Putin who will be throwing his toys out the pram?

[Alvecia]

Interesting.
Out of curiosity, has this ever occured before? Not Russia specifically, but a country being barred from one, several, or all events.

[Costa Fierro]

Good. New Zealand will finally sweep the medals tables at the track and field. Watch your back, Usain Bolt.

[Shamhnan Insir]

Interesting.
Out of curiosity, has this ever occured before? Not Russia specifically, but a country being barred from one, several, or all events.

Countries have been banned from the Olympics before for various reasons, but as far as I remember this is the first incidence of drugs cheats being the cause of the ban for a whole nation.

[Jochizyd Republic]

The Olympics shouldn't be used this way unless the athletes are a terrorist threat.

[Costa Fierro]

The Olympics shouldn't be used this way unless the athletes are a terrorist threat.

Why? Doping is illegal and gives an unfair advantage to those athletes who are using performance-enhancing substances.

[Shofercia]

It would appear that after lengthy investigations and court procedures, Russia has been banned from participating in track and field events at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/36855244

Further allegations of state sponsored doping are yet to be fully investigated which threaten total ban from all Olympic participation, however the initial ruling is already pretty damning. The IAAF has welcomed the ruling which it supported, with Lord Coe expressing is disappointment that the situation had become so serious.

Personally I'm quite happy that the Cas committee and the IAAF have taken such a strong course of action over this. Recently the shadow of doping rumours, claims and bans has tarnished the world of athletics and quite frankly little serious action seemed to have been taken.
Whilst it still has its problems, I'm glad that something has been done in the Olympic athlete world to show that cheating and corruption will not be tolerated regardless of who you are, unlike in FIFA for example.

What say you NSG? Was the ruling correct, is the punishment to harsh, do you feel sorry for Putin who will be throwing his toys out the pram?

I say that WADA are a bunch racist pigs. Their allegations, as well as the McLaren Report, and similarly spouted bullshit, are all based on three idiots, namely Rodchenkov, Stepanov, and Stepanova, yes, they're related, husband and wife. Morons attract one another. Stepanova, who couldn't make the Russian team, (seriously, check her times vs times it takes to make the team,) had her husband tell WADA how ubah-ebul Rusha iz since, I think it was 2010, most likely on condition that she could compete as an independent athlete. The reports were largely ignored, (you'll notice how the Western Press only goes after Olympics held in non-Western countries,) because you wouldn't want to damage London's Olympics, and their empty soccer stadiums during the initial rounds.

But Brazil's different. Those Olympics can be fucked with. So now Stepanov's allegation came out, and lo and behold, his wife gets to compete. What an incredible coincidence! I'd say "I hope she loses" but her chances of winning are about as mine. And I cannot even compete in the women's events. Of course failing butthurt athlete and husband cannot be the star of the show. That role's reserved for Grigory Rodchenkov, who claims that he, along with Russian Special Forces, was cheating on those urine samples in Sochi. The story told by Rodchenkov reads like a badly written spy novel from a 2 year old, (apologies to 2 year olds,) but it was enough for WADA's caliber of intelligence.

But hey, let me quote it: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/sport ... -2014.html

In a dark-of-night operation, Russian antidoping experts and members of the intelligence service surreptitiously replaced urine samples tainted by performance-enhancing drugs with clean urine collected months earlier, somehow breaking into the supposedly tamper-proof bottles that are the standard at international competitions, Dr. Rodchenkov said. For hours each night, they worked in a shadow laboratory lit by a single lamp, passing bottles of urine through a hand-size hole in the wall, to be ready for testing the next day, he said.

Erm, let's take some common sense into account. If Russia was to dope, as Rodchenkov alleges, why the fuck would Russia not be using elite forces? After all, Sochi was extremely prestigious, so why wouldn't Russia be doing that? And if Russian Elites would be doing that, why the fuck would the Russian Elites use just a single lamp that could go out at any time? "The SpetzNaz operation in Syria failed, because a single lamp went out" - the "truth" in Rodchenkov's and WADA's World. This is just comically pathetic.

None of the athletes were caught doping. More important, Russia won the most medals of the Games, easily surpassing its main rival, the United States, and undermining the integrity of one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events...

Ahhh yes, the US lost, ergo Olympics suck. And here the Western Press gloriously brought up Russia's abysmal performance in Vancouver, claiming that only doping could've been responsible for such an improvement. Apparently these "stellar researchers" couldn't bother to look up Russia's previous years, which shows Vancouver as an anomaly to anyone with at least half a functional brain.

1994 - Russia's first with 11 Gold Medals
1998 - Russia's third with 9 Gold Medals
2002 - Russia's fifth, with 5 Gold Medals
2006 - Russia's fourth, with 8 Gold Medals
2010 - Russia's eleventh, with 3 Gold Medals

2010 was the only time, in Russia's entire post WWII History, where Russia did not make the top ten. One of the reasons? The Plyushenko Controversy, where, in an act of petty hooliganism, Plyushenko was denied a Gold Medal but some dumbfuck referees. Even so, 2010 was the nadir. Russia average 8 Gold Medals, without 2010, where, even with Plyushenko's Gold Medal, that'd be 4 Gold Medals. An abysmal performance. And yet, the Western Press is implying that Vancouver represented Russia's usual performance. What the actual fuck? 4 ain't 8. Why 13? Russia implemented Victor Ahn's Speed Skating Program, earning 3 Gold Medals. Vic Wild, whom Russia funded, earned 2 Gold Medals.

The Russian Figure Skating Team earned 3 Gold Medals. Russia's biathlon team, a sport that Russia's usually strong in, earned 2 Gold Medals. And a Gold Medal from Skeleton, Bobsleigh, and Cross Country, apiece. Of course when you actually study the issue, Russian performance at Sochi makes sense, so the Western Press is hurr durring "oh noes, Russia went from 3 to 13, dey muzt be cheatinz, waaaggh!" Apologies to the orcs for insulting their intelligence in that comparison. Let's count here: we have an average of 8 Gold Medals, 5 came from programs started by foreigners, and 1 from an event that Russia was favored to win that never existed before. So, let's do something that some "journalists" cannot, basic math! 8+5+1 = 14. Oi! Looks like earning 13 Gold Medals is very possible!

Needless to say, RuNet is not happy. Here are a couple of tamer blogs:

http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/07/the-ol ... d-war.html
https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2016/05 ... -as-i-say/

One important fact that escaped most international observers was that a media campaign, which had begun shortly after the 2014 deep freeze in Russian-Western relations, was constructed around the “testimonies” of three Russian citizens who were all interconnected and complicit in a string of doping scandals, and who later left Russia and are trying to make new lives in the West... In 2013 Marina Rodchenkova – Gregory Rodchenkov’s sister – was found guilty and received a sentence for selling anabolic steroids to athletes. Her brother was also the subject of a criminal investigation into charges that he supplied banned drugs. Threatened with prosecution, Gregory Rodchenkov began to behave oddly and was repeatedly hospitalized and “subjected to a forensic psychiatric examination.”

A finding was later submitted to the court, claiming that Rodchenkov suffered from “schizotypal personality disorder,” exacerbated by stress. As a result, all the charges against Rodchenkov were dropped. But the most surprising thing was that someone with a “schizotypal personality disorder” and a sister convicted of trafficking in performance-enhancing drugs continued as the director of Russia’s only WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratory. In fact, he held this job during the 2014 Olympics. Rodchenkov was not dismissed until the fall of 2015, after the eruption of the scandal that had been instigated by the broadcaster ARD and the Stepanovs. In September 2015 the WADA Commission accused Rodchenkov of intentionally destroying over a thousand samples in order to conceal doping by Russian athletes. He personally denied all the charges, but then resigned and left for the US where he was warmly embraced by filmmaker Bryan Fogel, who was shooting yet another made-to-order documentary about doping in Russia.

Let’s take a look at another lover of clean sport cited by Mr. Tygart, Canadian cross-country Olympian Beckie Scott. Beckie Scott won the bronze medal for Canada in 2002, finishing behind two Russians – Olga Danilova and Larissa Lazutina – who tested positive for a banned substance, darbpoetin. They were stripped of their medals, and they deserved to be. But you can sort of see why Beckie Scott might kind of have it in for Russia, since she reasons that Russians cheated her out of a gold medal, and why she is demanding that the WADA board expand its investigation to all sports in Russia; something which is completely unprecedented. How does darbpoetin work, anyway? It boosts red blood cell production. How does blood doping work? It increases red blood cell count. What’s the difference? Well, one is ‘an abomination’, and the other is a “Shhh!! You saw nothing!!”

“This is an abomination”, Beckie thundered, to a tumultuous ovation from the western crowd, speaking of the accusations by Russian ‘whistle-blowers’ of endemic doping in Russia. I don’t remember her even bringing up the use of blood doping, which has exactly the same effect as darbpoetin, to unethically win medals. But the American athletes who confessed to blood doping were not stripped of their medals, and it is unlikely they ever will be. Because blood doping was not illegal until the following year.

[The balkens]

Wow, any evidence?

[Shofercia]

The Olympics shouldn't be used this way unless the athletes are a terrorist threat.

Why? Doping is illegal and gives an unfair advantage to those athletes who are using performance-enhancing substances.

This just in: you can require that, before attending any competition, athletes report there a month prior. Or a week prior. Depending on the competition. And during said week, as well as throughout the competition, you can take urine and blood samples. Doping has been in the Olympics since its inception. The only way you can stop doping, is by catching everyone who cheats, and ensuring equal rules and complete transparency for all athletes and fans. Scare tactics aren't going to work.

[Khadgar]

The Olympics shouldn't be used this way unless the athletes are a terrorist threat.

The Olympics shouldn't care whether there's cheating or not?

[Nearly Finland]

Crap ton of evidence. My take on the topic is, it's great that the rules are being enforced and Russia's being banned from competing in Rio, but why is the Olympics at Rio in the first place? There's plenty of disease afoot, not to mention that Brazil has a tendency to bulldoze it's people in order to make room for new stadiums nobody uses after the event.

[Geilinor]

I say that WADA are a bunch racist pigs.

Sure, sure. WADA is so racist! Everyone hates Russians and they're out to get you!

Quick, someone tell Putin! This affront to Russia cannot stand!

[-Fahrong-]

Sad interference of politics in sports.

[Dragonia Re Xzua]

Wow, any evidence?

"You see, Russia has--"
"Welp, good enough for me. Ban Russia from the games."
"You didn't hear what I was going to--"
"Listen, they're Russian: They're guilty from the start."

[Gatito]

I'm going to bet that the rest of the athletes are doping as well, but this is just a way for the west to do antagonizing towards Russia since they're pretty much incapable of doing it in places that it actually matters.

[Geilinor]

I'm going to bet that the rest of the athletes are doping as well, but this is just a way for the west to do antagonizing towards Russia since they're pretty much incapable of doing it in places that it actually matters.

Do you seriously believe that the Olympics are a Western-controlled plot? This type of paranoid nationalism is going too far.

[Gatito]

I'm going to bet that the rest of the athletes are doping as well, but this is just a way for the west to do antagonizing towards Russia since they're pretty much incapable of doing it in places that it actually matters.

Do you seriously believe that the Olympics are a Western-controlled plot? This type of nationalism is going too far.

The west heavily influences the decisions made by the Olympic administration. And I wouldn't call it a plot, this is just them doing what they've always done.

And more importantly, how is blaming this decision on west v. Russia antagonisms nationalism of any sorts?

[Rio Cana]

There is a way around this. The Russian athletes that still want to compete can do so under other flags. For example, NK. Has far has I know, NK. is not banned.

Yes this proves it, NK. is going to Rio - http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/na ... 08714.html

[-Fahrong-]

I'm going to bet that the rest of the athletes are doping as well, but this is just a way for the west to do antagonizing towards Russia since they're pretty much incapable of doing it in places that it actually matters.

Do you seriously believe that the Olympics are a Western-controlled plot? This type of paranoid nationalism is going too far.

Umm, Russia just got banned by accusations almost entirely fermented in the US and Canada. How have the olympics not been hijacked by western foreign policy? You can try waving off everything we say as paranoid if you want to avoid actual discussion though.

[The first Galactic Republic]

Oh hoh shit.

The Olympics shouldn't be used this way unless the athletes are a terrorist threat.

Since when did the olympics not have rules?

[Tulais]

To be honest, from what I've been hearing, they won't be missing much in regards to this olympics.

In all seriousness being banned from events because you break the organization's rules seems pretty fair.

[Geilinor]

Do you seriously believe that the Olympics are a Western-controlled plot? This type of paranoid nationalism is going too far.

Umm, Russia just got banned by accusations almost entirely fermented in the US and Canada. How have the olympics not been hijacked by western foreign policy? You can try waving off everything we say as paranoid if you want to avoid actual discussion though.

I want proof that WADA has political motivations.

[Shofercia]

I say that WADA are a bunch racist pigs.

Sure, sure. WADA is so racist! Everyone hates Russians and they're out to get you!

Quick, someone tell Putin! This affront to Russia cannot stand!

Erm, not sure if you're aware, Geilinor, but banning clean athletes who train in Russia, most of whom are Russian, is racism. If they were to ban the Russian athletes that were caught doping before, that would be fine. But banning clean athletes, i.e. the ones who never doped, solely because they train in Russia, (meaning that most of them are ethnic Russians,) is racism.

[Gatito]

Too be honest, from what I've been hearing, they won't be missing much in regards to this olympics.

In all seriousness being banned from events because you break the organization's rules seems pretty fair.

I'm still wagering that the doping is more widespread than just Russia, but you're right that they won't be missing much. From the looks of it, Rio is going to be a fiasco this year. You probably won't see anything wrong on the television, but it'll manifest itself in a clever Huffington Post article or something like that.

[Gatito]

Umm, Russia just got banned by accusations almost entirely fermented in the US and Canada. How have the olympics not been hijacked by western foreign policy? You can try waving off everything we say as paranoid if you want to avoid actual discussion though.

I want proof that WADA has political motivations.

I want proof that criticism against western corruption equates to nationalism.