Seven sinners at Rio Olympics
Rio will feature several Olympians back from drug bans, writes Andrew Alderson.
Yesterday’s latest doping news that 45 more athletes, including 23 medallists from the 2008 Beijing Games, have been caught after retesting from the last two Olympics again raises the question of how much the Rio event is descending into farce.
Do champions in sports requiring power, speed or stamina — ie most of them — deserve to be treated with respect for their sporting prowess? Or should we wait at least 10 years until their samples undergo further testing?
The reputations of those winning fairly are tarnished through no fault of their own as we observe their feats through a skeptical lens.
The new cases mean 98 athletes have failed tests in the reanalysis of their stored samples from Beijing and the 2012 London Olympics. Culprits from the latest batch are yet to be named.
To make matters worse, past doping offenders will be present at Rio.
The likes of sprinters Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay, cyclist Alejandro Valverde, swimmer Sun Yang, tennis player Marin Cilic, shot putter Natallia Mikhnevich and 800m runner Yuliya Stepanova are seven athletes banned for doping-related issues in the past. Each could compete at these Games and there are many more expected to be in Rio.
What preventative or threatening message does that send to those who are clean?
The International Olympic Committee said a total of 1243 samples had been retested so far in the first two waves of their reanalysis programme.
The 30 new positive cases from Beijing involved athletes from four sports and eight countries. The 15 athletes caught in the new London tests came from two sports and nine countries. The IOC did not say whether any were medallists. A third and fourth round of retesting will continue throughout and after the Rio Games.
With each country yet to confirm their Olympic teams, it’s impossible to know how many convicted drugs cheats will be competing in Rio. The following are seven of the better known ones who look set to be there.