I think Russia should be kicked out of the IOC until they get out of Ukraine and give Crimea back to them.
4
Letting the Russian athletes compete individually is ridiculous. How can you ban a country from a sport but not the participants? Furthermore, the athletes are complicit.
3
Unfortunately for Russia.. Trump can't pardon them for this ongoing cheating and malfeasance.
It's simply beyond his span of control..... even for him.
Has Trump defended Russia yet? Says everyone does it. Threatens to keep US out of Olympics unless Russia ban is rescinded.
Is anyone surprised that Russia had doping and tried very hard to cover it up ?
The athletes should NOT be allowed to compete.
2
I salute the reformers in the middle of this mess.
It's my understanding the foundation for laws banning doping in sports in Europe have their foundation in gambling fraud statutes, in other words, because betting and oddsmaking and bookies are legal on cycling in France and Belgium, and doping is a fraud, you are stealing someone's money doping a horse or a human, same thing.
Keeping in mind these drugs were all developed specifically to improve human performance, and the fact they work extremely well at that, I'm left to wonder how we fix this.
If the NFL can't stop doping, and oddsmaking and bookmaking on the NFL are now legal here, what hope do the doped (since the sixties) poorer Olympics have to become clean?
Some athletes dosages of these drugs run under a more is better philosophy and when they become 'blocked', that is the drug stops working at improving performance at the usual rate, they started another related drug, or use two or more drugs in combinations, stacking, to win.
How are we going to fight an internationally well known bad practice when we have massive ethics lapses at home?
I'll say for sure the people fighting this ought to be looked up to, more than the medal winners, for sure.
1
Clearly Putin saw winning at Russia's Sochi Olympics to be imperative to sustain his support as national leader. Any fallout from cheating would come home to roost long after 2014, which could then be explained away as Western persecution.
1
I thank NYT for the accompanying Q&A which gives the rest of the story.
I watched the press conference live - on RT, no less.
Not one of them made a statement of outright outrage against Russia that could have helped folks understand gravity of this situation.
It was all legalese and "some thing will have to be worked out in future."
This is as much a ban as a parent telling a teenager - you are banned to drive for good but only on all Mondays.
For life of me, this whole talk of "innocent athletes and future athletes should not be punished" misses the point.
It is clear that many past "innocent and fire winners" ended up being dopers and cheaters because of their own initiative or with complicity by authorities.
A total ban will - once and for all - tell Russians - so called innocent athletes and their parents - the world has had enough.
There are many innocent athletes and parents outside Russia who seem to fear consequences and abide by rules - as they sacrifice their lives for international glory.
A total ban - may harm a generation - but after that future and succeeding Russian generations will know once and for all - cheating does not pay.
2
The thing is it doesn't really ban Russia, they just have to compete as neutral athletes. This was a government sponsored doping program, the ones not doing it, if any, were complicit in hiding it.
1
I actually feel sorry for Russians. It seems everything they do is based on cheating and misinformation. Anyone who would put their trust in Putin's Russia to do the right thing is going to be, well, sadly disappointed. The WADA is not putting up with the cheating, but don't fret Vladimir, trump and republicans still love and look up to you in America.
1
"Russian athletes not implicated in doping could compete in the Olympics" - so what is the point of a ban? Russia has been caught several times now cheating at the state level and always gets away with it. All these agencies like the UN are just paper tigers interested in making money with no regards for ethics.
4
Naturally, Trump and the Republicans are maintaining it was Ukraine behind the denials and data manipulations and perhaps even the Chinese, Iranians, and N. Koreans. They're subsequently calling for an investigation into the investigation.
2
How long do you think it will be before trump starts lobbying to get Russia reinstated?
5
Why can't WADA just believe Putin's claim that Russia didn't dope, like Trump believes Putin's claim that Russia didn't interfere with the 2016 US election - it was Ukraine. Don't WADA executives have any business interests in Russia?
1
In the wake of a doping scandal at the 1998 Tour de France, the French government doubled-down on enforcing French anti-doping laws that had been on the books, but timidly enforced, since 1965. For French riders, fear of jail time proved a powerful tonic against doping at a time when EPO was turbocharging the pro cycling peloton. In the 2000s French riders lagged against competitors from places like Spain, Italy, and the USA where national legislators elected not to get involved with doping enforcement. The French government’s crackdown on doping punished all French cycling pros—dopers and abstainers alike—by assuming (correctly) that drugs were an essential part of their training and racing regime. Continue these long-standing pharmaceutical traditions, French politicians declared, and you’ll go to jail. The sight of riders who got caught being led away by the gendarmerie messaged that France was not fooling. Meanwhile, riders from laissez faire countries (like Lance Armstrong) could carry on using with no risk of incarceration. While unfair to French riders who had to race on an uneven playing field, the severity of French law and punishment was fairly effective in cleaning up sport—at least in France. Russia needs the same mean tonic French athletes got. When every Russian athlete—innocent and dirty—is assumed guilty and banned, only then will Putin, his ministers, and his athletes get the message that there is more loss than gain in flaunting doping rules.
14
Now someone needs to explain to Trump that he can't pardon them.
3
WADA has more guts than the Republicans in Congress. They used facts and found Russia guilty. Republicans cling to false conspiracy theories like the Putin gang are now spreading about the doping scandal. Bill Barr should investigate WADA.
Cynicism aside, Putin pushed for doping and got caught so Russia is getting what it deserves, humiliation and a ban on competition.
2
Too light a punishment. No citizen of the Russian Federation should be allowed to compete, period! None!
3
Gee, the Russians manipulating records and hiding criminal activity. Who would have believed it! Maybe Putin, too, expects trump to pardon his country and make it all go away. Nothing like having an all-powerful American dictator as an ally.
Can we also ban Russia from "participating" in US elections for the next four years?
4
Waiting for the GOP to announce an investigation into how it was really the Ukranians who were doping ... and that's why they withheld that last sum of aid money intended for them ... make them investigate.
2
and dog gone it, they influenced our election in 2016 as well
Does this mean there’s someplace Russian stolen money hasn’t bought officials off?
I'm waiting for Trump's rebuttal.
3
We can ban Russia from the Olympics, but we can't ban them from our elections.
5
Good.Long overdue.He and his buddy trump are 2 peas in a pod of malevolence.
2
Let's say that it's true, that Russia has actually been actively cheating all these years. Why? What is it that makes people, or in this case the Russian government, want to cheat! It is just revolting.
1
Waiting for Trump to defend Russia. The over/under is 24 hours.
5
@Robert Antall he's still working on the Pensacola Saudi terrorist apology.
6
But the USA is going to let Russia steal elections, because the GOP says it’s okay.
4
Toothless. The cheaters can still play? I dare the officials to sit down with my kids and explain that.
I bet every Olympic club house around the world has just recalculated the risks of kicking off their own doping program.
2
These penalties don't go nearly far enough. Russia orchestrated a state sponsored and funded campaign to entirely undermine the legitimacy of the Olympic Games, and then engaged in a thinly veiled cover-up to ensure it's winning athletes could not be discredited after the fact. From this, it seems two things are certain. 1 - that this was a long planned and likely long term program (you don't simply manifest a mass doping program in a year or two) meaning that many medal recipients over the years were likely cheaters. 2 - to countries like Russia and even China, the end always justifies the means. To me there's no really difference between Russia manipulating doping tests and China altering birth certificates to get underage gymnasts into the Games.
Given the trajectory that both of these countries are on - mass censorship, inane national pride among the masses and authoritarian rule, we can only expect more and more cheating and more and more cover-ups. Shame on Russia. Shame on China.
127
@John Lance Armstrong was not so long ago. Let's not just do moral superiority here. Athletes cheat, and if the sport organization lets them get away with it, they just continue to cheat.
The US isn't a country where the end justifies the means? Sure it isn't.
30
@Jack Walsh Athletes in other countries cheat. But in no way as in the state sponsored and systemic doping program that the Russians had/have in place.
In the US dopers are caught, but they are a fraction of the Russian cheats.
20
@Jack Walsh
There's a huge difference between a cheating individual athlete (or even a team) and a state sponsored and state covered culture of cheating that permeates through and corrupts nearly everything it touches
22
"It (Russia) continues to steadfastly deny many of the allegations, even after several independent investigations that have revealed a welter of evidence against it".
Sounds familiar, doesn't it.
Very familiar.
280
@Bruce Stafford "We rigged American election, we rigged British referendum. What's problem with rigging little sport event or two?"
52
@Bruce Stafford
Exactly correct. Standard right-wing strategy the world over: when all else fails, resort to the Big Lie and insist loudly and repeatedly that what you see with your own eyes is not real and instead you must believe what we say.
32
Which just goes to show you: Russia can't do anything without cheating.
7
Why do we waste money on Olympics ? the same countries cheat, and we just repeat the same story. The officials are corrupt, we find out the managers are sexual perverts' and the drill never ends.
We should be able to honor talent without going thru these made for TV viewing audiences and then you still cant find the event you want to watch.
There has to be a better way
3
Who's gonna tell Trump that he can't pardon Russia?
5
@Leading Cynic - AG Barr will not !
1
Trump will pardon them.
1
About time.
2
Obviously, Ukraine is the one responsible for Russia's doping
5
Does anyone even care about the Olympics anymore? Substantial amounts of money is spent on facilities that in many instances are used but a few times and then fall to disrepair; there is no such thing as an "amateur athlete"; "cheat to win" is how to play the game; events with subjective scoring (i.e., gymnastics, ice skating) are more political events than athletic competitions; etc. I don't know anyone who watches....
7
Sounds like the Russians want to ruin the Olympics for the rest of us. Too bad, so sad, I am looking forward to next summer’s gloriously Russian-free olympics! Restore integrity to the Games!
2
I remember the days, fondly, when this story would have been the headline and certainly above the front page fold. The political show is gathering too much of our attention.. we need more sports. Sports unite, politics divide
4
Well, if it isn’t a tragic and a terrible injustice to the drug-athlete industry, it’s still important to note.
The banana is everyone else in the DA industry will have to compete in other events with the Russian DAs, while some in the audience will think drugging has been diminished.
Bananas.
This seems a very "light" ban.
They should actually ban the athletes, or it has no teeth.
And they should actually make it an eight year ban, subject to review after four years. Otherwise Russia will once again send its athletes in, and once again have them sing their anthem loudly, and continue to mock WADA.
WADA needs to grow up.
8
So Russia was allowed to host the winter Olympics and the World Cup, and then they get a slap on the wrist that doesn't prevent athletes from competing? Why shouldn't other nations try to copy the Russian doping scheme?
8
Time for the character in the WH to jump out and defend his boss NOW.
4
President Trump will take the US out of FIFA, Olympics, to protest against these measures. That's not fair for America to have Russia excluded.
2
Not to worry, President Trump will step in and get the IOC to reinstate Russia. He'll even suggest that they hold the next Olympics at his Trump Doral Resort because it has the greatest facilities, the best....
12
Ultimately, today's Russia is far less trustworthy than in it was during its "glory days" of Communism. It isn't just party members and their family and friends putting their hands in the mess. It permeates their society (including government) and is continuously embraced by both the richest and the poorest in the country.
I have seen a current and detailed Wikipedia study ranking countries in the world by corruption and it lists Russia in 138th place. Chinese are in something like 76th place. Canada is in 9th place. Never trust a Russian.
3
Dear WADA:
I'm currently stuck with a so-called leader who “ ...... was afforded every opportunity to get his house in order and rejoin the global community for the good of its citizens and of the integrity of democracy, but he chooses instead to continue in his stance of deception and denial.” Can you ban him for life? Or, like Russia, just in 2020?
4
What does Russia contribute to the world today that in any way makes up for its apparent awfulness?
8
I was going to say “nothing,” but then I remembered that Russians are very good chess players. That’s all I can think of which is positive.
2
Putin's already recruiting for a new troll farm to discredit these findings. Hey, it worked on an American presidential election so why not?
5
I hardly need to read this article. If anyone thinks that Russia under Putin or anyone connected to Putin is not full of liars and cheaters, they are fools. It is obvious. Russia will not be part of the international community until it gets rid of Putin and his ilk. They have no place at the Olympics, despite its raison d'être.
5
Perhaps Rudy can jump in and clear Russian of this witch hunt.
6
What's especially sad about the tawdry, ongoing saga of Russian athletes and drugs is:
1) Athletes from numerous countries (including the USA, as other readers are pointing out) have used banned substances to get that all-important edge in international competition; this is not just a Russian issue.
2) In decades past, the impressive success of competitors from the Soviet Union and East Germany were largely due to state living and training support, plus advanced sports science programs that developed nnovative approaches to training -- innovations that Western athletes and coaches adopted and now routinely use.
But the myth will persist that it's possible to create champions with chemicals alone and that the Russians, et al, were all dirty and we were all clean.
4
@Richard sorry but individual doping scandals or even whole teams pale in comparison to the state-run doping and cover-up that Russia has undertaken. Same with East Germany back in the day but even they weren't passing urine bottles through holes in the wall at their own hosted Olympics. Thanks but no on the false equivalence.
What. A. Joke.
I used to love the Olympics but didn't watch any of it the last time around, and have no intention to watch again, very much to do with this case. Not as a sign of a protest - it's just that everything I love true sport and competition, and have no desire to watch some weird aberration where I have to pretend everything is fair.
Russia will qualify for World Cup, but compete as neutrals? Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. I love the World Cup but will 100% not watch a single match or purchase any related items if this goes through.
I really hope someone saves sport before it's too late. All countries, all athletes that are found to intentionally break the laws and cheat, should be banned.
3
@Misha
If the Constitution doesn't mean anything why does the World Cup mean anything . Justice doesn't matter and the make believe sports of fairness shouldn't matter either.
A show for what?
We love to point fingers at other countries and tsk tsk them. Do the names Justin Gatlin or Marion Jones ring a bell? How bout Carl Lewis? Did you know "Lewis has now acknowledged that he failed three tests during the 1988 US Olympic trials, which under international rules at the time should have prevented him from competing in the Seoul games two months later.
The admission is a further embarrassment for the United States Olympic Committee, which had initially denied claims that 114 positive tests between 1988 and 2000 were covered up. It will add weight to calls by leading anti-doping officials and top athletes for an independent inquiry into the US's record on drug issues." Yep, been there and done that.
6
Whereas I share your opinion on the athletes you mention and on the USOC’s complicity in covering their abuses up, it is a false equivalency to put these incidents on the same level as what Russia has been doing. In the case of Carl Lewis, et al these were individual athletes who decided to cheat and were given cover by a non-governmental group. In the case of Russia, this has been a broad, multi-year, systemic effort perpetrated by the Russian government directly; including their intelligence services. The situations are an order of magnitude different.
18
All the Russians have is their classic tactic of “whataboutism.” What about him? What about her?
There will always be corrupt individuals willing to cheat. Russia has proven to be a corrupt country in which EVERY athlete cheats, whether they want to or not.
2
This is a toothless ban, as long as Russian athletes can continue to compete in the Olympics and other international individual competitions. I guess they are out of the football World Cup, at least. It may be unfair to ban the innocent athletes who did not dope, but that is just too bad. The WADA, IOC, FIFA, etc. need to take a true principled stand and just throw the Russians out entirely for there to be any meaningful impact. Sadly, I am not holding my breath for this to happen.
44
@Horace: What makes it even worse is that under this “ban” Russia will still be allowed to participate in team sports and team events. An Olympic soccer or hockey team of “authorized neutral athletes” from Russia, that’s a sham! Such a team still represents Russia as a country, and there is no spinning away this fact.
21
@Horace
The ban is not perfect but it at least a recognition that the government of Russia not just individual athletes or agents, has been a the forefront of doping, and hiding their efforts. I wonder how long before our President announces that Putin has denied the charges "strongly" and that he belives him. And then Tucker Carlson will follow closely with his defense of that fine government in Moscow.
4
@Berto Collins
Not the kind or way teams sports are controlled and operated by Russia though.. so it effectively forces Russian organized teams from competing.. but allows individual Russians to collaborate and not be penalized by the actions of Putin.
These penalties are insufficient, given the state malfeasance committed by the Russian authorities in covering up doping. The ban should include prohibiting Russia from participating in all team competitions and team events, even under the "authorized neutral athletes" designation. The team sports this designation is really a sham. There is no way to obscure the fact that a team represents a country. So Russia should not be allowed to compete in team sports (like soccer, basketball, hockey, etc), and in team events in individual sports (like relays in track and in swimming, team competitions in gymnastics, etc), even as "authorized neutral athletes".
8
Mr. Ganus and Ms. Pakhnotskaya were very brave in speaking up. I worry for their safety.
4
Anyone want to take me up on my bet that this will be overturned? It's simply saber rattling.
6
This is exactly what Russia deserves for its flagrant violations of anti-doping laws, stretching back over decades. The real winners are the athletes no longer forced to play against doped-up Russian athletes, indeed it is them who have led the resistance to Russia in the international arena.
2
As a lifelong Republican, I feel sickened that this is the type of Putin government that Trump/GOP want to align with. My GOP that I once knew would fight to do the right thing. No longer. Instead, today’s GOP is spewing conspiracy theories spun by our adversaries and going along with corruption of our government at the highest levels. Today’s GOP is no longer the GOP that I knew and believed in.
17
@simon simon The US needs a conservative party (which I will be happy to vote against, at least most of the time). The GOP is no longer it. I hope it can be recovered from its current cultish incarnation, or at least replaced by a sane conservative party.
14
I was talking to a student from Russia the other day and she had an interesting take on all the Russian cheating, which was that in the U.S. cheaters are considered to be losers, but in Russia, losers are considered to be those who don't do everything in the possible to win.
8
And therein lies the issue....we will never see eye to eye and they still do not understand why it is we beat them without drugs. The main difference between the cultures.
1
That's fine - they can explain it however they want in Russia. But on an international level, if we agree that cheating should be treated as a disgrace (which nominally at least, the whole world does), then it should be enforced that way.
Shame them and ban them internationally, and they can pat themselves on the back for doing everything to win while watching the rest of the world on TV. Fine by me.
4
@David
In American football, the mantra has long been that if you're not fouling (cheating), you're not trying.
'the punishment does not go far enough, because it leaves open the possibility that hundreds of Russian athletes can appear in Tokyo"
This "neutral flag" hokum is beyond disgusting. NO RUSSIAN athletes should be allowed to compete in Tokyo.
The WADA whiffed when they had an opportunity to make a clear, correct statement. Instead....
5
I like the old Olympics: All the cheating and twice the fun!
1
"“The Russian side, too, — by that I mean our sports community..." WRONG: Putin is personally involved in the scheme. And last time I checked Putin was Russia's dictator not simply its "sports community".
3
I saw an ad playing for some pro-wrestling event while reading the article. Bring pro-wrestling into the Olympics and let the Ruskies compete in that--seems perfect.
2
What?! No petulant demands from Moscow’s toady and Apologist in Chief that his will not stand? Fix News must not be covering it — or hasn’t told Trump yet how he feels about this.
3
This is the only acceptable global response to all things Putin: NO.
It's so unbelievably lucky for Putin that trump was 'elected' in 2016. trump acts as the 'now now' nanny who excuses everything Vlad does; his sneaky way of influencing the world. Russia has no economic diversity, and their economy is dismal. Living standards are poor by all metrics. All Putie has are his oil/gas reserves. (See Rex Tillerson).
Without the United States to make excuses for him, Putie never would have gained so much world influence. Thanks, republicans.
BANNING Russia for their manipulative ways makes sense. It's like "No, child. Everyone sees what you're doing, and you don't get to keep saying 'what, who, us??'."
But trump? "I don't see why it WOULD be Russia, Look, it was really Ukraine, so convenient! MY secret meetings with Putin are none of America's business. Putin told Kim to tell me to stop military exercises with SKorea, so I did." Removing sanctions from Oleg Deripaska for Mitch McConnell? Fighting FOR putin regarding sanctions.......On and on and on.
Oh, did we even mention the 2016 election EVIDENCE trump/putin keep telling us never happened? They have to go so far as to tell us that every. single. intelligence. agency is mean to Moscow.
What patriotic American, remembering the Soviets, would put up with this? NOT ME.
3
Does this mean the dope in the white house has to move out ?, or that he just can't go to the Japan Olympics?
5
Another Russian "shocker."
3
What a sham & utter joke. Russian athletes are banned for "doping" but their American counterparts who transition from male to female can compete in the women’s category without requiring surgery to remove their testes. What hypocrisy & double standard.
5
So many people who have to mention, relate or tie this to trump. So completely irrelevant. Yet you show that you cannot restrain your unrelenting hatred. Not for one totally unrelated article to trump. It shows how the hatred has consumed you and pervaded your every conscious thought. Pathetic.
1
It’s not their fault Trump and his followers have allied with Putin and Russian corruption. Now the two (Trump and Russia) are inextricably linked for all time. Just like Russian doped up athletes, Trump will always have the asterisk next to his name.
2
When is Saudi Arabia gonna be banned from global sports?
2
It’s all fake news people. The doping scandal. The Russian interference in our elections, the impeachment hearings, it’s all fake news...the President says so and if you can’t believe the President, who can you believe.
17
You know that this must be devastating for President Trump!
17
I’m sure he read the article carefully from beginning to end.
Great opportunity for 45 to show his loyalty to Putin. Withdraw the USA from the IOC and organize the pan US Russia games.
19
The Olympic Games is a great idea but participation should be strictly by individuals and all competitions between countries should be eliminated. Even teams should be composed without considerations of nationality. I stopped paying attention around 1960 when I was a kid living in Hungary where the success of Hungary in the Olympic Games was viewed as a proof of their superiority in every respect.
3
@PaulN
This is sarcasm, right?
1
@PaulN
Tell me again how those individuals are going to build bobsled practice tracks or spontaneously form into football teams. Are you sure the corporate sponsored games that you are unwittingly advocating for is really your most thought-through idea?
In other news: this is a happy day for Russia finally getting a tiny bit of the harsh justice they deserve. Really, it should be a 20 year ban for cheating after having been given second and third chances after caught cheating. And I'm sure Russia will wiggle out of it and/or use it for propaganda purposes (a quick scan of their usual propaganda outlets suggests that this is in full swing already), but for now it is a day where justice has been done.
3
Now this is Leadership
3
Shouldn't you say 'the Russian flag is banned.'
The athletes can still participate, which is a weak decision. They should have actually banned them.
17
@ Wayne Jones-
Exactly. We’ve been through this before- Russia was banned (from which competition I can’t remember), but the athletes still competed, just not in official Russian uniforms. This is just a slap on the wrist as far as they care.
4
WADA's exclusion of Russia from the next 2 Olympics and 2022 World Cup is spot on, except that it allows "clean" Russian athletes to compete under a neutral flag. What WADA should have done was ban ALL Russian athletes, clean or not.
Why?
Because Russia is an utterly immoral nation (without an ounce of remorse for wholesale doping).
And because Russian citizens -- those few who aren't corrupt themselves -- are utterly in denial.
15
@Ken just like our people here in the USA who were in total denial when we invaded the Middle East & caused countless deaths?
2
So you want to treat clean Russian athletes like we did the 1980 U.S. Olympic team? I don't think so. Punishing clean athletes just because they're Russians only emboldens Comrade Putin -- and his asset in the White House.
1
@Michael would like us to believe that he is one of “us.” Yet all of his comments are pro-Russian and anti-American. I would tell him to live in the Russia he loves so much if I wasn’t sure he already lived there.
1
This is such a shame and a bit of a sham. I feel sorry for many great Russian athletes that have worked hard their entire lives to have this happen to them. The definition of doping and procedures needs to be revisited.
2
@JG
All those great individual athletes have 4 years to find a flag of convenience or to participate as neutral athletes. Your sympathy for them is entirely misplaced, especially as we know that doping control technology lags behind doping use and it is likely that a far far far greater percentage of russians doped than were ever caught.
The other thing you should realize is wheras in the USA, those who are caught doping go on to shameful semi-anonymity, in Russia they tend to become MPs. Remember, Russia is the country who also turns hitmen - actual murderous hitmen - into MPs.
4
At least there's some measure of justice for Putin's despicable behavior. But it's a pity that Russia's athletes must suffer for his misdeeds.
4
The Russians deserve this and more. They drilled holes in the wall of their drug testing lab, switched drug positive urine samples and falsified data, all at the direction of their highest government officials. No Russian athlete should be allowed to compete for four years. Once a cheater always a cheater.
11
A suspiciously light tap on the wrist.
3
Good. Russia, like China, North Korea, Iran, and others are not countries so much as international organized criminal enterprises masquerading as countries. It's time the west stood up to these psychopathic actors and excluded them from the benefits of civilized society.
11
This is hardly punishment they're going to allow some Russians to participate as a neutral team, no flag, no anthem. However they did that last time too and when the Russians won the gold in hockey they played the Russian national anthem and raised the Russian flag. This is nothing but fluf. Once again.
5
Blaming the whistle blower? Why does that sound familiar?
14
Smiling and smirking Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin typically sends his foes to hospitals, mental institutions, prisons, urns and coffins.
Using a variety of common and unique Russian lethal chemical and elemental means as a hallmark of covert and overt murderous methods and means.
It is doubtful that Putin will accept this ban easily.
Expect claims that Russia is being framed by it's enemies.
Along with what about disinformation concerning athletes from other nations doing what is alleged here in cahoots with their government
4
Day by day Russians are getting more tired about the military junta and its king doll, Vladimir Putin. Russian states have a high tendency to collapse. It happened in the year 1917. Once again in the year 1991. Don't feel too surprised if the next collapse will materialize in near future.
5
Has Trump announced yet that the US will pull out if Russia is banned?
13
Russia has cheated forever, whether it is with drugs to enhance performance, or in stacking officiating crews with Russia friendly personnel, as they did when the stole the '72 Olympics basketball gold from the United States. That fact is what makes the Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid in 1980 even more amazing.
5
The way that whistleblowers were framed in this story is reminiscent of the tactics used against Ukraine.
6
@T --
The article fails to mention that the 'whistleblower' Rodchenkov' was neck-deep in the doping and became a CIA stooge after fleeing Russia to avoid arrest.
Who are Trump supporters going to root for now?
11
Now that Russia is banned from the Olympics in 2020, they can focus their resources on getting Trump re-elected!
9
Good.
And just like vlad and twittler, if you can't win on your own then by all means cheat your way to a win.
4
Justice is served. Thank you.
2
four years is nothing
2
Glad to see these perennial cheaters finally brought to heel.
2
Hey Putin, cheating shows weakness... It won’t matter how big the horse you ride.
7
Unfortunately the WADA punishment does not go far enough. Russian athletes will be allowed to compete as "neutrals" as long as they can demonstrate they are "clean". The agency (RUSADA) that is supposed to certify that they are clean has been itself suspended.
This (allowing "clean" Russian athletes) was done in the 2018 winter games, and many "clean" Russians were caught doping (yet again).
The only way to move forward is to permanently BAN Russia from ALL international competition. Only by banning possibly clean athletes will the Russians realize that systemic state sponsored doping will be punished in the most severe way, and then and only then, will they make an effort to clean up their act.
When sanctions are applied across the board, innocents also suffer. It is what it is.
So far it has been: cheat, lie, inveigle and obfuscate.
8
Maybe the World Anti-Doping Agency will be permitted to be jury for the trial of Trump & associates instead of the US Senate. Clearly the WADA show both ability and desire to follow and act upon factual evidence (unlike the Republican in congress).
2
“Don’t tell me it doesn’t mean anything.”
Sorry, it doesn’t mean anything. If the “neutral” team is allowed to compete and win, the fact that Putin can’t attend simply amplifies Russian pride while serving the narrative that the nation was jobbed. Ban ‘em all. Period.
5
@John D If Were the ing, Russian athletes could compete under a neutral flag, but not medal.
Lie, deny, lie some more, spin conspiracy theories, and claim persecution. Change the names, and this is Republican attempts to defend Donald Trump's corruption. I can't tell who is borrowing from whose playbook - Trump from Putin's, or Putin from Trump's.
4
Is there anyone actually left who watches the Olympics? It's become such a farce. Time to do away with them altogether.
1
@AMM
It's simply commercial sales pushing broadcast rights and politics. We should have shut it all down after Munich.
3
Sure, now that Russia can’t win, let’s ruin the Olympics for everybody! That seems to be Russia’s whole geopolitical strategy in a nutshell—Russia will never be able to compete with the West, so they want to throw the whole world into chaos in order to level the playing field.
1
Snarky response: Now can we get them to ban Russian interference in U.S. political events?
Thoughtful response: Can we hope that this pronouncement gets through to those on the fence about Putin's hold over Trump that Russia's govt-sponsored cheating and malfeasance likely occurs beyond sports? And that we shouldn't sit back and let it happen?
2
That Russia must cheat — whether in sports or, in the case of politics, by clandestinely interfering in the electoral processes of other sovereign states — in order to make what it perceives to be “gains” merely testifies to its quintessentially weak and impotent nature. This story is one more piece of evidence that Russia will never be a true superpower. My heart goes out to those who must live there, trapped for life in a vast wasteland of dysfunction.
258
Wow. This is a great comment. Your final sentence, in particular, really hit me hard.
17
@David H yep - that wasteland of dysfunction is a playland for criminal oligarchs. Exactly what the GOP wants for the US!
13
@David H
The United States has interfered in the elections and regimes of other sovereign states far more than has Russia/USSR.
4
Don't stop there, Russia should be Banned from the Globe, for the next four years. Minimum Sentencing Requirements.
5
From East Germany to present. A leopard only rarely changes its spots. And even when it does, the original spots are still forever part of their identity.
5
Drug test the politicians and agency heads that require others be tested but somehow don't feel the need to test themselves and their cohorts.
2
"I have lived through several world-changing upheavals. I'm a post-Soviet citizen; the country of my birth ceased to exist in 1991. We enjoyed less than a decade of tenuous freedom in Russia before Vladimir Putin launched its post-democratic phase. My ongoing attempts to fight that tragedy led to my exile in the United States. Now my new home finds itself locked in its own perilous battle -- a battle to avoid becoming the latest member of the post-truth world." (Garry Kasparov, chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative and a former world chess champion, CNN, 5Dec2019)
12
Great outcome. It was the "success" of the Sochi Olympics on the world stage that gave Putin the cover to launch his invasion of Ukraine and seize Crimea.
For better or worse, international sporting competition is global politics on a different stage.
19
@James brilliant comment.
@James
“It was the "success" of the Sochi Olympics on the world stage that gave Putin the cover to launch his invasion of Ukraine and seize Crimea.”
Hmmm. Nothing to do with the overthrow of the democratically elected president of Ukraine in a coup to the detriment of Russian speaking Ukrainian citizens just beforehand?
Many here observe that the 4 year ban is a rather tepid punishment. I agree, and I suspect that the reason is that the committee members who decided to ban Russia were personally fearful for their lives, or the lives of their family members, given the Russian record for poisoning, assassinating, and otherwise rendering non-functional those who oppose it.
57
You’re probably right. I never thought of that.
1
Is there anything Russia doesn’t cheat at?
163
@Craig Tchaikovsky and The Five writing great classical music!
8
@Craig There is a committee appointed by the Kremlin working on this. Gospodin Vladimir and his cronies hate to miss any opportunity.
5
Faberge eggs??
2
Can't we just ask Russia whether they cheated and assume they're not lying? I mean that worked for the US Presidency...
62
If Putin would spend 60 seconds focused on sports this might get cleaned up.
1
Deny, obfuscate, and continue illegal behavior.
Boy that sounds familiar.
All roads lead to Putin.
61
The most important question is : What does Russia has on Mr. Bach the president of the Olympic committee?
Putin is a former spy and we've seen how Russia has behaved since Putin took over. If Putin knows that the final decision depends on Mr. Bach, with the use of their cyber criminals, it's easy to compromise Me. Bach and have him do exactly what Russia wants.
What does Russia has on Mr.Bach? A journalist who will investigate this could hit the jackpot.
9
Ban all Russian athletes — make no distinction between those who have doped and those who have not. Russian sports and Vladmir Putin have shown no reason for any kind of leniency. This has gone on for far too long. The integrity the Olympics, and of sport itself, needs to be rehabilitated (if that is even possible anymore).
Just make Russia a pariah. Strike a blow against its national pride, and send a message to everyone else.
32
@MDB I like it. We'd probably see an exodus of good Russian athletes to other countries, where they could compete.
2
@MDB
I understand the theme of your passion here.. but be careful what you wish for.
By way of analogy: should all Americans be banned from travel to EU nations simply becasue EU leaders do not like Trump and therefore apply guilt by national association?
As the common saying goes, "Culture comes from the top." At the top, Russia has the most powerful gangster in the world, Putin. Is it surprising that every aspect of Russia has become corrupt to the point where now it makes sense to say that Russia is now rotten to the core? This should serve as a warning to all Americans that it is imperative to get Trump out of office, using a legitimate process - by impeachment, or by voting him and his administration out in 2020.
40
The world should bar them from everything until they start behaving themselves. Sport is the least of it.
17
So, “Russia” is banned. If athletes are allowed to still compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” then there is no incentive for Russia to change. Yes, innocent athletes get swept up with the guilty, but only a total ban has teeth.
29
@Diane Wilshere
There is every reason for them to change.. because Russia loses the narrative here.. and in their grand aspiration to be on top of the world of nations is undermined by the loss of face this does for Russia the nation.. even if it allows some access to competitions by individual Russian nationals.
By the way.. you can bet that any Russian individual athletes will be very carefully scrutinized and kicked at the sleightest issue... which is as it should be.
It seems to me that practically everything Russia does is an embarrassment. To be constantly banned from competitive sports is one and wanting to bully other countries in eastern Europe adding to that interfering in our elections just seems to me that Russia is rouge nation not caring about embarrassment.
11
Who has any doubt that Trump will soon be advocating that they be allowed to compete? Anyone?
23
@Thomas Payne I'm surprised he's still silent about this. He must be asking his boss how he should respond.
2
Cheaters will cheat. They can't help it. One reason why Trump admires Putin and Russia.
33
Gee, what a surprise! The same country that the U.S. intelligence community concluded had interfered in our 2016 elections has also been running a years long, covert and illegal doping scam.
I'm sure that other than these two anomalies the country is squeaky clean.
17
China should be next. What don’t they cheat at?
7
Now the Russians can focus on the 2020 presidential election.
12
Maybe Trump and his buddy, Putin can issue a joint pardon to these fine Russian athletes, with the proviso that Navy Seal, Gallagher and those fine men who marched in Charlottesville become part of the Russian Olympic Committee.
9
Cue Donny Trump: He'll claim it was Ukraine that doctored the results, send Rudy over there to get the "truth" then demand on Fox News they re-instate Russia to the Olympics and Global sports stage. Hey maybe he can pepper in a few Hunter Biden conspiracy theories as well.
12
Putin and Russia, Trump and the Republicans—they're all about cheating to win.
22
If Russian athletes are still allowed tp participate, it's a toothless, pointless punishment. When it comes to Olympic competition, it's all about the medal count. This so-called "ban" could still provide Russia with bragging rights should its athletes perform well.
29
@TyroneShoelaces Well, their athletes should be deemed non-affiliated, so Russia should get no "medal count" to brag about.
Now, if a country tries in good faith to stamp out cheating in its sports programs, and specific athletes did not dope nor were involved with cheating programs, those athletes should be able to compete albeit sans national affiliation. For example, in America, every athlete participates in private programs most of the time and competes in the Olympics and other worldwide competitions by qualifying for the national team. While it is the responsibility of the USOC to make sure these private programs are not doping, they don't control them, and our government does not fund the national teams. Therefore, individual athletes or private programs found to be doping should not get the USA banned unless the USOC is shown to be grossly negligent in monitoring who makes it onto its national teams.
Most other countries, especially dictatorships, communisms, and authoritarian regimes, have government control of national sports programs. Any doping is by definition allowed by the government, and even athletes who aren't personally doping are greatly advantaged by the substantial presence of doping athletes. Thus, all athletes from such countries should be banned. Russia's historical doping problem shows that it does not act in enough good faith to get any break.
Either it's zero tolerance, or tolerance has to be sensible and fair to honest athletes and nations.
4
@TyroneShoelaces The article to the left that I read states they will be allowed to compete if they are not implicated in doping, ie. are clean. That sounds fair to me.
1
Incorrect. If you only ban some athletes, then they do not police themselves. They learn how to cheat without getting caught.
Every athlete from Russia should be banned from all sport for eight years. It would teach them all that they need to blow the whistling the cheats to protect their own careers.
1
Ban the athletes as well 0 letting them compete under neutral auspices is WRONG.
20
Russia was brazen and full of hubris, they deserve ban. Seems to be a worldwide a malady.
16
When you are a little country like Russia that has no technology of its own, that is incapable of producing anything but third rate oil and second rate armaments you can expect them to produce anemic athletes and leaders like Putin who have to lie. cheat and steal themselves on to the world stage. All's Russia has ever needed is a world-renown asset in the White House to tear America down to make it appear Russia is on equal footing with legitimate Democracies. It is a good thing we have drug tests to rid ourselves of their cheating athletes. Too bad America's economic anesthesia has numbed us to the point of being compromised by a tin man army of third rate dictators, including our own president. The only test we have is the truth and that appears to be yesterday's business.
47
They should be thrown out of the World Trade Organization as well as blocked by all Internet Providers.. Russia only economic ability is to manipulate, lie and cheat in anyway possible to get what it wants..
39
@Erick I let you know that I borrow your well-written words.
@Erick You really think that Russia should be blocked by all internet providers and kicked out of the WTO, leaving them locked out, isolated, and completely reliant on propaganda? That’s how you create a North Korea.
-NW
This is just a slap on the wrist. The only way they will get the message is if all Russian athletes are banned from participating in international competitions in any capacity for at least 10 years.
102
@CP To ban Russian athletes from competing for ten years would mean to destroy the potential careers of athletes based on things that happened in their country of origin when they were children too young to even be aware of the situation.
-NW
Russia still thinks it can achieve greatness through dirty tricks, whether in sport, politics, or business. Lesson learned? I doubt it.
72
@Dave it’s been working for them, so why stop?
8
What a shame for the athletes, and for the world not to have the benefit of their fair participation. As we know, doping is often terrible for an athlete's physical health and psyche. For a state to not only fail to regulate doping, but to actually sponsor or impose it indicates breathtaking insecurity about its own abilities and strengths. It also betrays a total lack of understanding of what the Olympics are for, and what sports are for. Taking home gold is something to try for, but someone who thinks the medal count is what matters doesn't get it. The Olympics are an expression and an assertion of pure humanity, not humanity altered. They are thus particularly important in this increasingly automated and machined era. The Olympics unify across boundaries, inspire, and promote healthy, purely human activity worldwide, in sports and all of life. Get on board!
3
Lovely. Russia's transgressions on this front were ridiculous. It's nice to see that something's been done about it.
Sports can't just be lawless.
The punishment should definitely be carried through. Sounds like an appropriate punishment, also.
9
President Trump will demand the US withdraw from the Olympics in sympathetic support of Russia being banned.
74
@Ethan
I am always amazed at those here who cannot, even for a nanosecond, put aside their hatred for Mr. Trump to focus on the topic at hand.
3
@David H Russia and Trump go hand in hand so we are focusing on the topic. The US response to the ban is a legitimate topic of conversation.
10
Trump lies and cheats. Everyday. And he’s in bed with Putin. You can’t see the commonality?
8
Never mind Russia has plenty of supporters in the Republican party willing to cover for it.
92
No one ever says ‘yup’, I did it. Integrity is impugned by the actions taken and furthermore by the denial. If we could reset the transaction it would go thus so. Penalties would probably much less severe and the athlete would retain his reputation and self respect and never be questioned about his integrity. Simple huh?
4
“If upheld”
That should be in the headline as well!
And the odds of it being the case :-)
1
Trump will probably mount some kind of an effort to have the ban rescinded if Putin instructs him to.
145
@Michael Putin won't even have to mention it. This is one of those cases that will obviously be deemed "unfair" and protested accordingly.
7
@Michael - This will be an excellent opportunity for President Trump to shut up. Should be interesting to see if he is able to make himself do that.
2
The IOC President, Thomas Bach, is a notorious Russia apologist, and he will continue giving Putin as much cover as possible. However, I do hope that the IOC imposes a more meaningful punishment here. In particular, Russia should be banned from all the olympic team competitions, even under the "authorized neutral athletes" monicker.
17
Putin won’t like this, and will be pressuring donnie for a favor though. However in Russia, they don’t have a constitution of laws which would make it illegal.
With a dictatorship you can ask for favors.
11
"Russia, perhaps surprisingly, has so far been able to rely on the International Olympic Committee’s president, Thomas Bach of Germany, to escape a blanket ban...,"
What does "rely on" mean? The behavior of the Russians is unconscionable, the rest is dross.
6
Hubris. Arrogance. Deceit. An unwillingness to take responsibility for cheating. An inability to apologize and change course. An attitude of winning at all costs. Not just Russian sports, seemingly a Russian mind-set compliments of Mr Putin, with attempts to meddle in elections of sovereign countries, annexing of independent lands, assassinations, suppression of domestic opposition. Not that the U.S. doesn’t have its dark side, but Russia is downright scary these days!
13
This is not at all enough, we should take back all the medals and given to the right person. That is the justice for the true winners
33
Too bad for those Russian athletes that Donald Trump isn't head of WADA, because all Putin would have to do is say"we didn't do it, Ukraine did" and the Russian athletes would be allowed to compete.
15
Banned again. We should push to have them excluded from all international sports for ten years. Of course Putin would never allow this and instruct Trump to block it.
13
Ironically, Russia has sufficient resources to train their athletes to excel in these events. Instead, they chose cheating. Russia can be a great nation, just as China did by transforming itself economically. Sadly, they chose villainy.
62
@Merlin
China "built" its economy by way of theft of intellectual property, industrial espionage, and all manner of sub rosa chicanery and dirty tricks. I do not call that "great."
48
@David H
I've visited China a couple of times for business, so I can agree with you that they cheat and steal intellectual property. However, what I witnessed at Canton Fair for three straight weeks leaves no doubt that China would still be a huge economic success even without their theft of intellectual property.
Without leaving your seat, just look around and take a count of how many items are manufactured in China.
8
I’d rather not, thanks very much. Most of it is garbage.
8
trump and giuliani say that Russia is 'clean,' and that WADA's actions are part of a Ukraine-influenced conspiracy.
U.S. Attorney General barr is trying to find a way for the United States to assert standing to sue WADA 'for' Russia, and to 'get' jurisdiction in U.S. courts. Then, even if barr-for-Russia loses at trial, barr can take the case all the way to SCOTUS (where sit enough trump 'cronies' to overturn any recalcitrance in lower courts that might refuse to 'clear' Russia).
1
This would not have happened if WADA had appropriately punished Russia for its unbelievably horrible drug offenses at the 2014 Sochi Olympics -- brazenly switching out urine samples of doped athletes through a literal hole in a laboratory wall -- in an elaborate scheme involving top officials, and then engaging in an equally elaborate cover-up of the scheme, which would have worked but for the fact that the person at the center of the scheme decided to grow a conscience.
WADA should have banned Russia from all international sporting events back then -- absolutely including banning so-called "innocent" Russian athletes -- for at least 8 years. Furthermore, it should never have allowed Russia to "self-monitor" its athletes (what a joke!) or to allow its athletes back into competition unless (1) two separate and independent third parties were assigned to run the drug testing of Russia's athletes 100% of the time, and (2) Russia's athletes were/are subjected to continuous, unannounced drug testing by the independent third parties. Even with this, Russia is so used to successfully bribing sports regulators that the "independent" third parties would need to be switched out periodically, and of course those regulator entities would be barred from using individual drug testers from any country with a history of being sympathetic to Russia.
I suggest that Ukraine be one of the independent third-party entities monitoring Russia's doping of its athletes.
17
@ALB The International Paralympic Committee, unlike the International Olympic Committee, did ban Russia starting in 2016, and only lifted the ban provisionally earlier this year when certain conditions had been met (and if they continue to be met). Google it. The IPC took action unlike these other bodies that are only years later taking a step. It remains to be seen how effective it will be. There are no doubt clean athletes, now under suspicion due to the actions of the state, which is very unfortunate. Ultimately the doping scheme is a sign of lack of faith in Russian athletes to be able to succeed on a level playing field.
1
Make it permanent. They've been doing this from the very beginning.
12
Cheating? By Putin? Surely not.
Let us make certain our own house is clean; doping has too often been "accepted" as the norm for athletes in competitive sports, be it baseball, football, basketball, track and field, bicycling, etc., etc. Just last night I watched part of a football game where direct helmet-to-helmet spearing was commonplace but never called as a foul; is winning the only goal any more? What happened to honor?
The one major difference being that the Russian program was state-sponsored.
2
@Chris That cheating in other countries happens, but not in a blatant and pervasive way as in Russia, does not mean that the Russians do not deserve severe punishment for their actions.
2
@Chris
The doping scandals are so yesterday. Now the big issue is allowing 'transwomen' (male to female) who identify as women to compete as females in gendered sports. And due to identity politics and trans athlete activism, the US is right in the thick of this contentious debate.
@Chris
I agree with you both.
My question is why does something as uplifting as sport need to be corrupted at all by the influence of money and power? Why can we not appreciate what we do without having to trivialize the feelings inherent in athletic competition (I too was am athlete long ago) by placing power and status and money into the "game", whatever "game" that may be?