Why are the Russians still at the Winter Olympic Games?
I know that “technically” Russia is “not competing” at these games–just like they didn’t “compete” at the Tokyo Summer Games last year. They are on a two-year ban (down from the original four-year ban) for operating and attempting to cover up a doping system involving athletes in nearly all Olympic and international sports. They, as a government-backed national sports system, decided that they were going to cheat. And it likely would still be going on–on a national level–if the guy spearheading the operation didn’t start feeling remorse and blew the whistle on the whole thing a couple of years ago.
And yet the Russians are still in Beijing. Knowing that it could not afford to give up the under-the-table cash that comes from Russia and its oligarchs, the International Olympic Committee is allowing Russian athletes to compete as a sort of “independent contractor”–under the banner of the “Russian Olympic Committee”. When their athletes win a medal, the Olympic flag is raised instead of the Russian flag, and the Olympic Anthem plays if they win gold. “Technically” Russia does not get to “claim” any of the medals won by the athletes from their country.
That ban also included government officials from attending the games in an official capacity. And yet, at the opening ceremony for these Games, who was sitting next to the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping? None other than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Conveniently, the “ban” handed down by the IOC included an exemption for “special invitations by the host country”–and Xi couldn’t resist giving the entire world the middle finger by inviting his “good friend” Putin to share in the global spotlight.
A second middle finger to the world came last week, as word of yet another failed drug test for a Russian athlete delayed the medal ceremony for the Team Figure Skating competition. (As an aside, if this is Team Figure Skating, I think every member of the team should be on the ice at the same time and the competitors should have the added challenge of avoiding each other while doing their jumps or footwork routines.) We would eventually find out that it was 15-year old Kamila Valieva that had tested positive before the Games for a heart medication called Trimetazidine (try-muh-tazz-uh-deen). In its proper use, trimetazidine prevents angina attacks. When used for athletic purposes it increases blood flow and improves stamina.
Valieva is a gold medal favorite because she is in the only woman that has successfully landed a quadruple jump in competition–a first for women’s figure skating. But now you have to wonder is she the only one that can land that jump because she is that much more talented and athletic than her fellow competitors? Or is it because she is doped up like a racehorse?
Normally, Valieva would be home by now, her team stripped of its gold in the competition in which she took part, and the IOC would be seriously considering sending every Russian athlete with her because it is obvious that it just wasn’t “The system” that was responsible for the doping. In allowing Russians to continue competing internationally, the argument is that “It was the government and the sports officials that were to blame for the doping. We shouldn’t punish all of the future athletes.”
And yet here we are, a 15-year old girl being given performance-enhancing drugs in order to compete in one of the highest-profile Olympic events–and one that Russia has a proud heritage of winning. The IOC is yet to announce that it is stripping Russia of the Team Figure Skating gold. A complicating factor is likely that the United States finished second and would move up to the gold medal if Russia is disqualified–which would be an even greater insult. And the Court for Arbitration in Sport has ruled that Valieva can continue to compete–and win medals–until a full investigation and appeal can be considered.
While they may deny that politics have anything to do with their decisions, these international bodies have to be aware that Russia has been amassing troops along their Ukrainian border for months leading up to these Olympics. And in the back of their minds, those IOC and CAS officials have to be thinking that the last thing the world needs now is an international incident to further provoke Vladimir Putin. So they will sit on their hands. They will kowtow to the despots and allow still-dirty athletes to compete alongside those who (no guarantees here) are actually following the rules–and if those dopers win, they likely will get to keep their undeserved medals.
I gave up on the belief that Olympic competition is supposed to “inspire the world” decades ago. The only people “inspired” by the games now are autocratic thugs willing to throw around their dirty money to equally crooked Olympic Committee members to win their precious medals–at the expense of 15-year old kids. “Cheaters never prosper” may apply elsewhere in life–but that is certainly not true in the Olympic Games.
