IOC COUNTING ON APATHY
There were countless Olympic scandals before Russia, and the IOC is hoping you’re tired of it all
Given the familiar sound bites coming out of the IOC, it’s hard to work up the necessary outrage over the decision to ban, sort of, the Russian Olympic Committee from the upcoming Winter Olympics.
Russia got caught cheating. There’s a surprise. A bunch of their athletes were doped to the gills in Sochi. Another shocker. As a result, commissions were struck, sanctions were passed, stern warnings were issued and wrists were slapped.
So why is it any different this time? In light of so many other scandals, why should we still care? Russia cheats. In other news, the sun rose in the east and set in the west. It’s happened so many times over the years in so many places it’s dulled our sense of indignation.
But isn’t that what they’re counting on?
A cursory look at the Olympics’ latest serial drama reveals Vladimir Putin and friends have broken impressive new ground while threatening those principles which the IOC is supposed to cherish.
I mean, this should be the one that calls for their permanent ouster. This should be the moment where the IOC stands up and says, “Enough.”
Instead, we get the familiar half-measures which, on the surface, look impressive, but, in reality, are largely inconsequential.
This is Page 1 from the IOC’s playbook and, over the years, it’s allowed them to survive any number of scandals which should have buried the Committee.
They’re confident it will work again. Given their history, why wouldn’t they?
If you’re new to the party, the IOC has voted to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee from PyeongChang over the state-sponsored doping system which, to date, has resulted in 25 athletes having their results stripped from Sochi.
To refresh your memory, those were the 2014 games held in Russia in which Putin picked up a $40-billion tab as the host. Don’t mean to sound cynical, but maybe that’s the reason the IOC’s sanctions aren’t as punitive as they first appeared.
For starters, Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in South Korea under the Olympic flag provided they pass the IOC’s vetting. That vetting will be undertaken by an IOC-appointed panel which will issue, ahem, invitations to approved Russian athletes.
These include anyone who has not been disqualified for an anti-doping violation.
Apparently, there’s still a couple of those athletes left in Russia.
Those eligible will then compete under the Olympic flag under the name: Olympic athlete from Russia.
As for the net result of the sanctions, the IOC has barred ROC officials and the Russian Ministry of Sport — including the odious Vitaly Mutko, the former minister of sport who’s now Putin’s deputy prime minister — from South Korea. But that still leaves the possibility of a sizable contingent of Russian ath- letes participating in the Games and could mean full reinstatement of the ROC right after the closing ceremonies. Yes, it could. In an interview with ESPN, IOC member Adam Pengilly, a former skeleton racer from Great Britain, cited the “years of (Russian) manipulation of sport, massive fraud directed from government, the peak of which was sample swapping at (Sochi).
“If an athlete did anything like that, they’d get at least a four-year suspension and there would be a case for life. But a country gets less than three months and is given a global platform — hardly a deterrent.”
Yes, but those athletes never paid $40 billion to host the Games.
In the face of these charges, Russia has pulled a page from its own playbook.
They railed against the injustice done to their athletes who, it goes without saying, have never doped. They claimed the IOC ruling as part of an international plot.
I guess when you try to fix an election in the world’s most powerful democracy, you believe you can get away with anything. But this really is beyond the pale.
The Russian doping system came to light largely through whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of Russia’s anti-doping lab. As it happens, Rodchenkov’s revelations were confirmed by the McLaren Report, an independent investigation authored by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren.
For his troubles, Rodchenkov is now in witness protection in the States.
“Rodchenkov should be shot for lying, like Stalin would have done,” ROC president Leonid Tyagachev told a radio reporter.
How’s that sense of outrage now? And here’s another good one. The Trump presidency — which, as you may know, has been connected to Russia in other matters — has waffled on the idea of American partic- ipation in South Korea.
It’s not that they don’t like the idea. They just don’t love it.
“No official decision has been made,” White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “I know that the goal is (to participate).” Could this get any better. Over the years, the IOC has been harder to kill than another famous Russian: Rasputin. It has survived bribery scandals, corruption scandals governance scandals and, roughly 4,347 doping scandals but we continue to watch because the Games deliver the very best reality television.
We love the athletes, love their stories, and, yes, even love the stage. Along the way, we chose to ignore all that background noise about the IOC and the more venal aspects of Olympism.
Now, they’re relying on us to ignore Russia and everything that’s happened.
But, really, why wouldn’t they?