EDITORIAL Russian ban a good call

The International Olympic Committee, never renowned for its infinite wisdom, made a good call this week when it banned Russia’s team from competing at the 2018 Olympics ... but not all its athletes.

The team’s ban is punishment for the state-sponsored doping scandal, a dark cloud over the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Clean athletes, who lost in 2014 to cheaters, which include a significant number of Canadians, will have a small medal ceremony during the upcoming Winter Olympics. Better late than never. Athletes who are screened and approved by the ICO will be allowed to compete as “independents” and if they win gold, the national anthem won’t be played at the medal ceremony. What song will they substitute — Right Now by Van Halen or The Final Countdown by Europe?

The Olympics have a bad history of politics. In 1980, years of training were erased for Canadian athletes when our government participated in a boycott due to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

In 1984, most of the Eastern block skipped going to Los Angeles.

In 1994, Tonya Harding arranged to maim teammate Nancy Kerrigan, yet Tonya was allowed to participate at the Olympics.

Canadian Ben Johnson was the poster child for doping in 1988, never mind there were other track-and-field athletes, mainly Americans, who were also juiced. Did the IOC pick Ben as a scapegoat because NBC, an American television network, had so much money invested? Back to the Russian team. The compromise isn’t perfect but at least it’s an acknowledgement.

What the Olympics are, and have become over the years, is the furthest thing that modern day founder Pierre de Coubertin would have ever imagined.

Bring back the Olympic ideal. —James Miller Valley editor