Posted on 12/04/2017 2:32:55 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
...For one, Putin will be furious. Losing any and all connection to the Olympics a month before Russia's election would be a black mark for his country, and the IOC is reportedly already aware that its decision could humiliate the disgruntled president...
Alexander Zhukov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee, called the WADA findings a "joke."
Since November, with only months to spare before the start of PyeongChang's 2018 ceremonies, Russia has seen more than two dozen athletes reprimanded by the IOC for cheating in previous Olympics, namely the 2014 Sochi Games. Some have been stripped of gold medals for their alleged roles in a "state-backed doping program." Others have been retroactively disqualified. And many have been outright and indefinitely banned from future Olympics participation, including in February's South Korean Winter Games.
All the while, Russian president Vladimir Putin has neither acknowledged nor publicly considered the possibility of state cooperation in the doping scandal despite incriminating notes from a Russian chemist that were obtained by The New York Times. He's been most vocal, in fact, when painting the widespread Olympics sanctions not as evidence of structural corruption in his own country but merely as fodder for his political rivals -- Putin is on record suggesting that America is using the doping sanctions to "discredit" his government and influence Russia's presidential election in March.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbssports.com ...
Presidential "elections" take place in Russia in March and protest spirit in the country has been uncomfortably high. Putin finding it harder than expected to cruise right to the presidency. Heck, he hasn't even officially announced that he's running yet! Olympic thing may either a) discredit him at a time the country's economy continues to suffer and international isolation/sanctions take their toll or b) feed his narrative of Russia as a "besieged fortress" that must be defended against the evil, encroaching West.
Also as one Freeper noted to me:
Let’s not take for granted that the Olympics are taking place next-door to North Korea! Who knows how this can be used in a geopolitical tug of war...
I suspect that IOC officials will see the light, probably through puffy, swollen eyes.
With no NHL players and no Russia, Slovenia could win Hockey Gold.
Praying so. Putin made Sochi Olympics a centerpiece of his legacy and vision for Russia’s re-emergence as a global player. It was the launching pad he used to annex Crimea and then unleash havoc in Ukraine. It’d be nice for the (extremely expensive) FRAUD those games were to be revealed in full.
Why do we even have Olympics anymore?
Moments like Lake Placid “Miracle” Gold for example...(which I wasn’t even alive for)
But I was for the U.S. “Magnificent 7” Gymnastics team winning Gold in Atlanta...after Kerri Strug stuck her landing with a broken ankle. That was awesome :)!
Among other special moments!
Cancel the Olympics. Besides, it is in Korea, which is unstable situation and should be moved to somewhere else. Then again, chance of me or my family watching it regardless of where it is held is zero.
How is the Olympics going to handle the TransGender problem?
Will it allow men who proclaim themselves female, to participate in female events?
If so, it seems to me enforcing doping rules are silly.
Men will clearly break all female records. The women won’t have much of a chance.
If this unfair advantage is allowed, why should any other unfair advantage be addressed?
Perhaps the Olympics won’t allow men to compete with women, and that will make my comments mute.
If it does, ouch! Good luck with claiming fairness is the objective in all instances. It clearly wouldn’t be.
I am not a follower of Olympics stuff, but I thought that a lot of this retroactive medal stripping was due to new testing that detects previously unbanned substances.
Testing samples from eight years ago seems pretty strange to me. Eight years after taking third place, a participant becomes the gold medalist..
What are we going to do without Matt Lauer?
LMAO!!!
You don’t enjoy watching figure skaters twirl?
But kudos to you for not caring that much. Some countries still stake so much on them for political ends.
“With no NHL players and no Russia, Slovenia could win Hockey Gold.”
Not likely, as there will be plenty of great players from Canada, USA, Finland and Sweden.
Anyway, I don’t like Olympic boycotts and exclusions. Not everyone in Russia is part of some Putin machine - there is obviously some serious cheating but there are also real athletes who will be affected, on all sides - those competing against lesser competition and those excluded. I would prefer to see testing at the Olympics ramped up and root out cheaters one by one.
Yeah retroactive justice must be made, but the special moment was already robbed from the rightful first place athlete. Sad.
It’s because the Russian team is so tied to the State for its support — not private sponsorships and things.
If Russia is banned, Sergei Bobrovsky, Evegeni Malkin and Vladimir Tarasenko can just stay here and keep playing hockey. Which is fine with me. The Russkies are damn good hockey players and I like watching them play. In North America.
I guess it's okay as long as the Soviets don't ride the Tour de France.
The Olympics have been a farce for 40+ years.
It is the only chance for people who spend time on things people find boring (net up: the NFL in the Olympics).
A waste of time, effort and treasure.
Let’s blow them off forever.
>>With no NHL players and no Russia, Slovenia could win Hockey Gold.<<
Heck, West Covina High could win the Gold.
Yeah I get it, I just prefer for Olympic participation not to be a political football every 2 years. I guess I have to face the fact that the Olympics have gone the way of the NFL and add them to my ‘do not watch’ list
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