Posted on 05/12/2016 7:09:38 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
In Putin, IOC aristocrats such as Bach thought they had found their kindred spirit, willing to pay and do anything for Olympic glory.
Construct lavish and ridiculous facilities that play to the IOC's over-inflated sense of worth? Check. Suck up to IOC leadership like they are all-powerful? Check. Toss a little something extra on the side to assure the voting on host city goes smooth? Cough. Cough.
The New York Times on Thursday reported the latest, and most damning, proof yet that Russia did more than just host the 2014 Winter Olympics: they conspired to fix it. Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of Russia's anti-doping laboratory at the time, detailed to the newspaper how a state-run program was able to use being the host nation to swap out dirty urine samples with clean ones to assure the eligibility of dozens of Russian athletes.
There couldn't be a more apt postscript to the Sochi Games than this: The whole thing was a fake.
The IOC, thinking it had found their latest desperate despot with billions to burn on them while cooing in their ear, was actually being played for fools, as Russia used the home-country advantage to attempt to rig the entire event.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
Somewhat at sea here. Do you mean the physical schedule of events [game plan] or the broadcast schedule or what? What organization were you a 'lead programmer' for?
I realized that you already 'hedged' but I would say most of the 'small' sports (low popularity in TV ratings) are probably genuine. Cheating at Badminton is probably unlikely.
Still, it is the fact that it is a world-wide effort with real human stories that does draw the interest. Take the Jamaican Bobsled Team as a prime example! Personally, I'd rather have a permanent fixed neutral site for the quadrennial games but that has its own set of risks.
And let there be no doubt that this is also how the Russians got awarded the 2018 World Cup from FIFA - the only organization (other than the UN) even more corrupt than the IOC.
And the American scores...
CAN 8.8 UK 8.9 JAP 8.5 USSR 7.6 East Germany 6.8 SWE 8.6 FRA 8.7
... publicly rigged for generations...
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