Congratulations, Russia! Your past has finally caught up with you. For the first time ever, an entire class of athletes from a
specific country have been banned from the Olympics because of cheating. The International Association of Athletics
Federations [IAAF] banned Russia’s entire track and field team from competing
in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. The World
Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] established an Independent Commission to conduct an
inquiry into the allegations made by the German broadcaster ARD. The Independent Commission verified the
broadcast’s claims, the report of which detailed a culture of cheating in
Russian athletics supported by the Russian state. After the Independent Commission published
its report last November, the IAAF banned Russia’s track and field athletes
from international competitions. They
told the Russians to get their act together or face the consequence, that being
the IAAF would make the ban stick and apply it to this year’s Olympics. Perhaps Russia thought the IAAF was bluffing.
On June 15th, WADA issued a follow-up report, and
apparently the Russians didn’t get the message.
Maybe they think that because they are a “great power” the rules that
apply to everyone else don’t apply to them.
Some of the findings include [but are not limited to] the following:
--Doping Control Officers [DCOs] faced
intimidation and threats of expulsion from Russian security services;
--Packages containing samples from
tested athletes were tampered with by Russian customs officials; --Security staff created significant
delays for DCOs in entering venues and consistently monitored once inside (Race
Walking in February and Wrestling in May);
--Schedules not released until the
day prior to or day of competition;
--Challenging to find events because
at times only a region is provided for the location, not a specific venue or
city;
--736 drug tests of Russian athletes
were canceled for various reasons
- 669 due to sample collection authority lack of capacity
- 2 due to athletes "retiring"
- 25 as a result in change of whereabouts
- 40 recorded due to “other reasons”
- 22 requests to test at competitions declined
--National Championships for Olympic
Sports including Olympic qualifiers held in cities with restricted access due
to ongoing civil conflicts resulting in service providers declining test
requests;
--Military cities often used as
location of whereabouts [athletes know that special
permission is needed to gain access].
Vladimir Putin complains this is “mass punishment” and that
banning all Russian track and field athletes is unfair. Putin of all people should be well aware of
the concept of “mass punishment.” He
served a regime that: 1) deported thousands of Lithuanian, Estonian and Latvian
intellectuals to Siberia 75 years ago this week [most didn’t return]; 2)
deported thousands of Crimean Tatars to Siberia in 1944 for alleged
collaboration with the Nazis; 3) executed thousands of Polish military officers
and intellectuals in 1940 [Katyn Forest] for the crime of being Polish and for
having independent thought; and 4) unleashed the Holodomor on Ukraine, an act
of genocide that starved millions of Ukrainians to death. Cries of mass punishment from Vladimir Putin
ring hollow.
The Russians are an interesting bunch. They’re not satisfied with breaking the rules
to get a leg up on their competition in track and field. Russian “soccer fans” [not unlike English
football hooligans before them] are in France for Euro 2016, seemingly for the
sole purpose of beating the shit out of fans from other countries just because
they can. Such is their hooliganism that
even FIFA is mad at them. Their behavior
is such that FIFA has threatened to disqualify Russia from the remainder of
Euro 2016. This point might be moot in a
few days because the team will probably be going home early because of their
own ineptitude. To incur the wrath of
FIFA, an organization that has its own significant issues with corruption,
takes a special talent. If FIFA really
wants to get Russia’s attention, they could take the 2018 FIFA World Cup away
from Russia. I don’t see that happening,
but I can always dream.
The Russians treat sports the same way they do international
affairs. Because they used to be a great
power, they think they have special status and can get away with anything. But now, not only do they endure political
and economic sanction for their bad behavior in Ukraine, they also face
sanction from the sports world. This won’t
change as along as Vladimir Putin breathes.
