Once again we are seeing an argument made for intentional ignorance. An investigation is opposed because it might obstruct the possibility of a small group of individuals from making a lot of money. The integrity of the entire sport and of the Olympic process is to be jeopardized for greed and marketing, and possibly because Trump wants to play cozy with Putin.
No! We must get the facts and let the chips fall where they may. We need to know if what we are watching every four years in whatever city has the highest standard of integrity possible.
No! We must get the facts and let the chips fall where they may. We need to know if what we are watching every four years in whatever city has the highest standard of integrity possible.
1
Wouldn’t the really honest clergy and athletes actually direct the youth not to watch the sport but to be outside, be physically active and play with their peers?
The professional sport actually prevent the kids from participating in the active life style.
Allegedly, without the professional sport the kids would not be physically active. Really?! How come that the previous generations were far more physically fit than the current ones?
The professional sport actually prevent the kids from participating in the active life style.
Allegedly, without the professional sport the kids would not be physically active. Really?! How come that the previous generations were far more physically fit than the current ones?
Frankly,
There is no significant difference between the professional clergy and the professional athletes. Both groups are in it for their personal gains while shedding the crocodile tears about the well-being of their followers.
Both groups are selling the unfounded happiness to their flock.
Both groups need the enormous arenas for the spectators to obediently follow up their achievements.
Without the audience who in the world would exercise all day long for decades without any benefits? Who would speak endlessly about the faith without the people actually listening to them? Who would speak about the honesty, integrity, character and morality while simultaneously facing the most corrupt politicians and governments in the history of the world without ever pointing a finger at them or raising the cane?!
Who honest and just would sell their flock to the highest political and corporate bidders? Who would let the people that love them wage the endless foreign wars knowing perfectly well that the Almighty actually banned all the wars and all the killings?
Who would pocket the dozens millions dollars knowing perfectly well that they got their fans addicted to sitting on the couches and excessive eating and drinking, thus exposed to epidemic obesity and addictions?!
There is no significant difference between the professional clergy and the professional athletes. Both groups are in it for their personal gains while shedding the crocodile tears about the well-being of their followers.
Both groups are selling the unfounded happiness to their flock.
Both groups need the enormous arenas for the spectators to obediently follow up their achievements.
Without the audience who in the world would exercise all day long for decades without any benefits? Who would speak endlessly about the faith without the people actually listening to them? Who would speak about the honesty, integrity, character and morality while simultaneously facing the most corrupt politicians and governments in the history of the world without ever pointing a finger at them or raising the cane?!
Who honest and just would sell their flock to the highest political and corporate bidders? Who would let the people that love them wage the endless foreign wars knowing perfectly well that the Almighty actually banned all the wars and all the killings?
Who would pocket the dozens millions dollars knowing perfectly well that they got their fans addicted to sitting on the couches and excessive eating and drinking, thus exposed to epidemic obesity and addictions?!
2
Sad that a bunch of businessmen, who no doubt will profit heavily off a winning Olympic bid, will put honesty and fair competition behind the quest for profit. The entire Olympic movement has become business not sport. Hurray for Travis and the work he is doing.
2
Forget the Olympics and the sham, bloated and corrupt sport-based show that it has come to represent.
What will be of interest is if and how the White House chooses to weigh in on this. That response could be the real eye opener here.
What will be of interest is if and how the White House chooses to weigh in on this. That response could be the real eye opener here.
1
Only the fools could believe the Congressional hearings might kick the drugs out of sport.
Kick the money out of sport, and the people will stop ruining their health to be the best in something completely unimportant and irrelevant.
If the global corporations have the tons of money to invest into the professional sport, keep rising the corporate taxes till they stop flooding the sport with the cash.
By doing it we will accomplish extremely important objectives - start balancing the federal budget, refocus our youth on something truly important like the learning and knowledge instead of idolizing the muscled athletes and shift our universities from obsessing over college sport toward the scientific and academic excellence of our students.
Once we do it, we will not have to depend on attracting the academic talent from the rest of the world any longer. We will have our home grown scientists too.
As long as we teach the students that the athletes are the most important members of the student class, the kids will care more about the sport and partying than about the classes.
Slash the game-related tailgating and excessive drinking and you will reduce the amount of the sexual violence on the campuses too.
We cannot run the colossal national debt to recruit the new generations of the alcoholics and drug addicts on the universities.
If the professional sports were helpful, the use of drugs, narcotics and alcohol would be diminishing, wouldn’t it?
Kick the money out of sport, and the people will stop ruining their health to be the best in something completely unimportant and irrelevant.
If the global corporations have the tons of money to invest into the professional sport, keep rising the corporate taxes till they stop flooding the sport with the cash.
By doing it we will accomplish extremely important objectives - start balancing the federal budget, refocus our youth on something truly important like the learning and knowledge instead of idolizing the muscled athletes and shift our universities from obsessing over college sport toward the scientific and academic excellence of our students.
Once we do it, we will not have to depend on attracting the academic talent from the rest of the world any longer. We will have our home grown scientists too.
As long as we teach the students that the athletes are the most important members of the student class, the kids will care more about the sport and partying than about the classes.
Slash the game-related tailgating and excessive drinking and you will reduce the amount of the sexual violence on the campuses too.
We cannot run the colossal national debt to recruit the new generations of the alcoholics and drug addicts on the universities.
If the professional sports were helpful, the use of drugs, narcotics and alcohol would be diminishing, wouldn’t it?
I love watching the Olympics. But I am so tired of the lack of professionalism in the IOC. The message that we'e getting now, that they'll be petty if there's a (clearly well-deserved) inquiry in doping, just makes them look bad. It becomes clearer and clearer that they do not put the athletes first, except in PR.
Sure, it would be good for LA to get the games. But not at the cost of a clean process. The athletes and our self-respect should be more important than this childish behavior of the IOC.
Sure, it would be good for LA to get the games. But not at the cost of a clean process. The athletes and our self-respect should be more important than this childish behavior of the IOC.
1
Oh, sure; forget ethics, doping, clean sports. Money for LA is more important, so go ahead and roll over for the Russians.
2
Keep the corrupt Olympic enterprise out of our state. How about Beijing hosts every Olympics?
Have the politicians ever got anything right?
The key problem with the professional sport is – THE PROFESSIONAL SPORT...
The professional sport is the very negation of the healthy physical activity and lifestyle. It depends on the dozens millions people sitting for hours and days in front of the TV sets and drinking, eating, stressing and munching.
For what?
For the completely fake feeling of short happiness stemming from an imaginary victory.
We won?! In what?! Getting more inactive, fat, drunk and lazy?!
The key problem with the professional sport is – THE PROFESSIONAL SPORT...
The professional sport is the very negation of the healthy physical activity and lifestyle. It depends on the dozens millions people sitting for hours and days in front of the TV sets and drinking, eating, stressing and munching.
For what?
For the completely fake feeling of short happiness stemming from an imaginary victory.
We won?! In what?! Getting more inactive, fat, drunk and lazy?!
1
It's beyond comprehension how the USOC would consider holding games in the US as long as the current president makes it extremely difficult for non-Americans to travel here.
I get that they are remarkably corrupt and will sell to the highest "bidder", but it's a recipe for disaster. Just yesterday we read in the NY Times about a French scholar who was detained at the Houston airport for 10 hours by our geniuses at ICE.
I get that they are remarkably corrupt and will sell to the highest "bidder", but it's a recipe for disaster. Just yesterday we read in the NY Times about a French scholar who was detained at the Houston airport for 10 hours by our geniuses at ICE.
Please, please give games to paris! Any polls conducted for LA residents' opinions? I would hazard guess very few people want the attendent mess olympics would bring here....
2
I find far too many negative comments regarding the Olympics in general here. They are unwarranted.
Exactly one country has engaged is systematic and virtually universal doping: Russia.
Ban them, for the next two games. That ban should include dismissing their representatives from the IOC. No presence -- and no votes in deciding the location of future games.
Exactly one country has engaged is systematic and virtually universal doping: Russia.
Ban them, for the next two games. That ban should include dismissing their representatives from the IOC. No presence -- and no votes in deciding the location of future games.
4
There's no need for a "Captain Renault" moment, is there? Who among the even mildly attentive considers the IOC or its member affiliates repositories of rectitude and fair sportsmanship? The rampant corruption within olympic officialdom and abetted by network greed is painfully blatant. Their souless plunder into third world nations, especially virulent where the summer games are concerned, leaves nothing behind but debt and useless edifices. The pawns, athletes and residents alike, are sacrificed in the vile pursuit of ratings and profits.
3
There is a proverb that says "if your roof is made of glass, don't throw stones" - when you read the legality of the substances that American athletes get away with, you would be revolted. Yes from a legal perspective, our athletes are "clean" but it doesn't mean that they don't take anything, it just means that we have great lawyers that apply for complicated legal waivers to use a long list of performance-enhancing substances. We are also the country of Lance Armstrong, and multiple baseball players who were busted for performance drugs but only years after an outraged public was screaming "not possible!".
Yes it is possible. It is possible that we are almost just as guilty as Russia and many other nations when it comes to performance drugs. That's why maybe our criticism should not be as loud. On a separate note, one day someone will decide to look under the hood of the NFL players...kids who one year are 200 lbs and the next balloon to 350 lbs inexplicably. You get the point, there are no saints in athletics when there is so much money at stake.
Yes it is possible. It is possible that we are almost just as guilty as Russia and many other nations when it comes to performance drugs. That's why maybe our criticism should not be as loud. On a separate note, one day someone will decide to look under the hood of the NFL players...kids who one year are 200 lbs and the next balloon to 350 lbs inexplicably. You get the point, there are no saints in athletics when there is so much money at stake.
1
It is critical to respond to each and every one of the vast number of
humanitarian abuses that have been implemented by Russia in its vain attempt to push its will on the free world.
There is no telling how much lifelong damage the Russian athletes will
suffer after the systemic drugging that the Russian team management imposed upon them.
Let's not reduce or remove one single sanction upon the Russians until their murder of journalists and dissidents, as well as the takeover of Crimea and other parts of Ukraine are ceased.
humanitarian abuses that have been implemented by Russia in its vain attempt to push its will on the free world.
There is no telling how much lifelong damage the Russian athletes will
suffer after the systemic drugging that the Russian team management imposed upon them.
Let's not reduce or remove one single sanction upon the Russians until their murder of journalists and dissidents, as well as the takeover of Crimea and other parts of Ukraine are ceased.
1
The US should not be a contender, considering what the world may look like after Trump-and especially in America. The real issue is that the Olympic movement has such a tainted history that it probably should disappear as such. . The IOC has no credibility-not only with athlete doping but allowing member countries to compete after their history of what amounts to state doping.
The world does not need the Olympics-which has become a world bureaucracy of sport-which in itself, is the antithesis of the real Olympic ideal. However, if the bureaucracy should continue, here are some suggestions.
Move the summer olympics to Greece permanently, move the winter olympics to Austria permanently-simplify the number of events-accrue some credibility by strict anti-doping regimens-and forget about the billions of dollars of sponsors. Let the world have a truly athlete focused event-and take away the total circus atmosphere which now is considered a part of the IOC event.
The world does not need the Olympics-which has become a world bureaucracy of sport-which in itself, is the antithesis of the real Olympic ideal. However, if the bureaucracy should continue, here are some suggestions.
Move the summer olympics to Greece permanently, move the winter olympics to Austria permanently-simplify the number of events-accrue some credibility by strict anti-doping regimens-and forget about the billions of dollars of sponsors. Let the world have a truly athlete focused event-and take away the total circus atmosphere which now is considered a part of the IOC event.
1
No city hosting the Olympic Games has ever not lost a ton of money in the deal...besides which..."The Olympic Games" has been, for decades upon decades, a euphemism for "political corruption and bribe fest."
Give it to Paris...if, for no other reasons, than to show support or protest of the paranoid xenophobia and travel ban of the U.S.'s fright-wing conservative fringe.
Give it to Paris...if, for no other reasons, than to show support or protest of the paranoid xenophobia and travel ban of the U.S.'s fright-wing conservative fringe.
7
It's mostly become a competition in cheating. He/she who cheats best wins. Those who don't cheat don't have much chance. That's no message for kids. If we had any integrity we would pull the plug altogether.
6
A bunch of corrupt plutocrats in a shakedown scheme serving an even more powerful corrupt Putincrat.
The real money competition is who and how long can an athletic group fool the dope checkers.
The real money competition is who and how long can an athletic group fool the dope checkers.
2
The USOC and IOC need to decide: drugs or no drugs? Will the Olympics be about exceeding the limits of human endurance or just some chemical freak show? To save the cash cow that is the games, they pretend that this is a moral quandary. Spare us the drama, and just let everyone dope as they please.
And they wonder why "the Olympic Spirit" has become meaningless.
And they wonder why "the Olympic Spirit" has become meaningless.
6
What a compelling cast of characters!
- USADA and chief Tygart : Headquartered in the pot-loving state of Colorado, mission officially limited to reining the hundreds of fix-loving, test-avoiding US athletes only, nevertheless wants to hits headlines for stuff clearly outside official realm. First get some credibility, move out of Denver
- IOC: A bureaucracy-heavy, politically-influenced, money-driven organization that's been winking and nodding at drugs for decades
- California: a rebel state, itching to make marijuana recreational, home to the most sanctuary cities in the nation, rewards illegals with drivers licenses and work permits, will probably repeat happily when athletes from impoverished countries decamp in the hundreds
There's only one way to deal with this cast of clowns. No, not Hollywood, although they can start working on the script. Yes, a Donald Trump executive order, banning the hosting of the Olympics from the good ol' USA forever. Even Californians (-3m) will applaud. Yea, great this Prez, and thank you for your service.
- USADA and chief Tygart : Headquartered in the pot-loving state of Colorado, mission officially limited to reining the hundreds of fix-loving, test-avoiding US athletes only, nevertheless wants to hits headlines for stuff clearly outside official realm. First get some credibility, move out of Denver
- IOC: A bureaucracy-heavy, politically-influenced, money-driven organization that's been winking and nodding at drugs for decades
- California: a rebel state, itching to make marijuana recreational, home to the most sanctuary cities in the nation, rewards illegals with drivers licenses and work permits, will probably repeat happily when athletes from impoverished countries decamp in the hundreds
There's only one way to deal with this cast of clowns. No, not Hollywood, although they can start working on the script. Yes, a Donald Trump executive order, banning the hosting of the Olympics from the good ol' USA forever. Even Californians (-3m) will applaud. Yea, great this Prez, and thank you for your service.
5
So if one lives in a state with capital punishment...that means they support it? Or vice versa? If someone lives anyplace where they fully agree with the entirety of the state and local rules and policies...write up that short list will you. Your logic is severely in need of a tune up.
1
What's with the pot-bashing? Marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug. Quite the opposite, actually. And the USOC has been headquartered in Colorado Springs long before legalization. The steroids athletes use end up altering and destroying their bodies. Marijuana isn't nearly as dangerous. Do your research.
4
@BoRegard, Rockfannyc
Huh, what? This is not "one". This is an anti-doping agency dependent heavily on US government funds. Marijuana use is a federal crime which Colorado encourages everyone to happily ignore. Cannabis is a prohibited, performance-enhancing drug that is tested and acted-upon by WADA.
By continuing to locate themselves in a state that promotes marijuana living, USADA, whether they like it or not, endorse that flawed message, and by doing so, go against both the Federal Government whose money they depend upon, and also their core values, of which the WADA prohibited list is part.
Sadly, unless and until they move out of Colorado, USADA's say in any matter is a joke. Hurry up!
Huh, what? This is not "one". This is an anti-doping agency dependent heavily on US government funds. Marijuana use is a federal crime which Colorado encourages everyone to happily ignore. Cannabis is a prohibited, performance-enhancing drug that is tested and acted-upon by WADA.
By continuing to locate themselves in a state that promotes marijuana living, USADA, whether they like it or not, endorse that flawed message, and by doing so, go against both the Federal Government whose money they depend upon, and also their core values, of which the WADA prohibited list is part.
Sadly, unless and until they move out of Colorado, USADA's say in any matter is a joke. Hurry up!
1
There sure are a lot of Debbie-Downers commenting on the LA Olympic bid today. If LA thinks it can break even or even turn a profit, then I don't see problem. It'll provide jobs and give Americans exposure to other cultures - what's so bad about that?
More importantly, I'm old enough to remember the '84 Olympics - the most thrilling Olympics in my lifetiime. Mary Lou Retton and Carl Lewis and Zola Budd and a dozen other names are forever etched in my mind. I'd love for my nephews and nieces to get the chance to see what all of the excitement was about.
More importantly, I'm old enough to remember the '84 Olympics - the most thrilling Olympics in my lifetiime. Mary Lou Retton and Carl Lewis and Zola Budd and a dozen other names are forever etched in my mind. I'd love for my nephews and nieces to get the chance to see what all of the excitement was about.
3
if you want to host the Olympics you may need to let people from other countries in to watch them.
2
Well, turning a profit for which parties? These Oly "cities" never turn a beneficial profit, unless youre an executive, or a contractor who underbid, then overbills, and like nearly all sports complexes they do nothing for the locals, cept make a mess. Then leave a bunch of useless venues for the locals...
How about we just ban the Olympics – that corrupt, money grubbing organization.
19
Agreed and thank you - the Olympics have become way too big with too many events trying to satisfy every minuscule sport and soon we'll have demands to have at least 1 transgender athlete in every event. Glad to see so many countries backing away from hosting what has become ugly and way too political games - I'll watch still but everything is on delay making it even more boring.
1
Bearing in mind that the Olympic movement has become synonymous with corruption, why am I not surprised to read this as the trump-Putin axis begins to dominate our national and international affairs?
18
The Olympics are a corrupt enterprise trolling the world for a population willing to pay for their scheme.
29
The only ones profiting from the Olympics are the money grabbers at the IOC, wined, dined, feted while the city hosting goes broke. Stadiums, housing remain empty after the athletes leave. Time for the IOC to pony up some of its vast fortune.
1
As far as I am concerned, Paris can have the Games. Too many issues, too much money wasted. Los Angeles should take a leaf from Boston and just say "no."
33
What a disgusting farce. Tainted athletes should be banned, period. The Olympics have become a morass of corruption and greed. I wonder if this institute can ever be redeemed.
22
Doping invalidates the Olympics, period. Look it straight in the eye, walk away if you have to, because anything else is just a game of make-believe.
21
Reading this article felt a bit like reading that a passenger on the Titanic had complained about noting an unpolished brass deck fitting after the ship hit the iceberg.
Doping in the Olympics is a mere distraction. Given America's current challenges, it doesn't merit a moment's attention.
Doping in the Olympics is a mere distraction. Given America's current challenges, it doesn't merit a moment's attention.
22
No way will the IOC vote to bring the Olympics back to the US with the current border madness in place. ICE is detaining children's book authors, European scholars, Muhammed Ali's son (a US citizen) and others with no basis for suspicion. Los Angeles better just kiss this one goodbye.
32
Wouldn't it make more sense to recycle all the disused relics of Rio rather than building new ones? Environmentalists ought to be up in arms over this needless waste.
17
is this just another attempt to get closer to the russians? is there no integrity in anything? I suppose not. if sports is just a business, and one with putin, why should we care. I no longer do.
10
Young athletes dedicate their lives to training in their respective sport. If one group can circumvent or more aptly cheat, then where is the fairness?
Let the best athlete win on their unadulterated skills.
Let the best athlete win on their unadulterated skills.
7
As one who has very closely followed the Olympics doping scandal(s), it's apparent to me that Mr. Blackmun and his colleagues' main concern is preserving their royal status and their enormous cash cows.
14
The amount of American hypocrisy regarding anti-doping is more sinister than the rampant USA doping itself. And Michel Phelps? Might as well substitute Lance Armstrong for anti doping ambassador.
5
Fascinating claim. Can you quote any sources, or is it simply "He looks like a ped user to me."
1
Pitiful. Olympics is for those with cash only.
1
Fight to keep the games clean. Punish the PED users. Keep principles at the forefront.
Let the eat cake in Paris if that's what it takes.
Let the eat cake in Paris if that's what it takes.
8
Courage: A word missing from the vocabulary of the I.O.C. Shame on them!
6
This is sheer cowardice and self-interest and it stinks.
5
Quid pro quo. That's all the "moral reasoning" any good American needs to turn a blind eye.
3
The Olympic Games should be returned to Greece, where they originated. It is, after all, their invention. New, permanent facilities financed by the international community should be built at a special site dedicated to host it. And the Greek people should profit by it, not their corrupt government and the oligarchic families that destroyed Greece's economy and country. Think of it as a gift to Greece -- bankrupt, suffering Greece -- and the contributions Greek culture made to Western Civilization.
I like that idea.
The current system that has cities all over the world bid against each other to host The Games is too corrupted by special interests to be fixed. This story about the clashing agendas of American special interests frustrating the effort to punish the Russian Sports Federation's criminality is but the latest example. Truth is, Russia should be banned until Putin is gone.
Return it to Greece despite all that -- all the cheating by athletes and coaches, the obnoxious nationalism, the blatant stealing by real estate developers building pavilions and the "Olympic Village" and over-commercialization that reduces the Games to a pointless spectacle when not a joke. Despite all that. The Greeks need it too badly.
Or, simply abolish it. The world lived without The Games for several thousand years after Greeks stopped celebrating their physical prowess before their pagan gods. It can live without them again.
It's either/or. We can't go on like this any longer.
I like that idea.
The current system that has cities all over the world bid against each other to host The Games is too corrupted by special interests to be fixed. This story about the clashing agendas of American special interests frustrating the effort to punish the Russian Sports Federation's criminality is but the latest example. Truth is, Russia should be banned until Putin is gone.
Return it to Greece despite all that -- all the cheating by athletes and coaches, the obnoxious nationalism, the blatant stealing by real estate developers building pavilions and the "Olympic Village" and over-commercialization that reduces the Games to a pointless spectacle when not a joke. Despite all that. The Greeks need it too badly.
Or, simply abolish it. The world lived without The Games for several thousand years after Greeks stopped celebrating their physical prowess before their pagan gods. It can live without them again.
It's either/or. We can't go on like this any longer.
24
olympic leadership rotting from the inside out, like russian police state
2
Hold the dang hearings! It's more important to have clean sports than Los Angeles getting the games...& I fully support my hometown getting the games again. Can't we hold the Russians accountable for something?
7
The Olympic Games have nothing to do with sportsmanship and everything to do about money. Money is more important than morals and ethics. The games have long outlived their relevance and should be discontinued or at least boycotted.
17
Just another example of the sports bureaucrats rolling over the interests of clean athletes as the goal is spectacle, not fairness. USOC folks who want to downplay the doping should be fired.
11
Yes, there are places without antidoping controls, not only Russia. The focus of the doping problem is now in Russia, when the problem is around the world.