Russians booted from Paralympics,
Paralympics won’t let Russia play games with the Games
The opening of the daily Olympic press briefing was comedy, more than anything, as everyone ran through Rio’s various hassles. The shooting outside Maracana Stadium after the opening ceremony? A robbery directed at undercover cops, bad luck. The buses get- ting lost? It’ll get better. The bullet that landed in the equestrian venue? Just an accident, not an attack, these things happen. The report of the kayaker who hit a submerged sofa in the water? This may not have actually occurred.
Eventually the big question came. The International Paralympic Committee is about to ban Russia from their Games, after the IOC had declined to do so, leaving 278 Russian athletes at the Rio Olympics. So, how about that?
There was some bafflegab about the structural differences, and the corrup- tion of the IAAF. And IOC spokesman Mark Adams said, “(The Russian) national federation for Paralympics was involved for Sochi, and that’s where the gravest charges are. So it wouldn’t be surprising if they decided to take slightly different action from the IOC. But there are clearly very different circumstances for them and us, and it’s up to them to make their own decision.”
Indeed. But the structural differences between the Olympics and the Paralympics do seem a poor substitute for holding a nation accountable for comprehen- sive, state-sponsored doping. Maybe it was the fear of the precedent; ban Russia, and other nations could follow: important nations, which make for TV revenue.
Not an hour later, the IPC decision came down. IPC president Sir Philip Craven detailed the charges in WADA’s McLaren report, said the Russians were given a chance to respond to the charges, and announced a unanimous decision: Russia was banned.
“Tragically, this situation is not about athletes cheating a system, but about a state-run system that is cheating the athletes,” said Craven. “The doping culture that is polluting Russian sport stems from the Russian government and has now been uncovered in not one, but two independent reports commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“Our decision is driven by the need to hold our members accountable for their obligations. On the basis of the evidence we have, in the current environment our member the Russian Paralympic Committee cannot comply with the IPC’s Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Code. Those obligations are crucial to the IPC’s guarantee of fair competition for all.”
It sounds simple, when he puts it like that. It’s not, of course: there are surely clean Russian Paralympians who will be affected. They will be able to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and some may win. Some banned Russian Olympians did the same, successfully.
But the Paralympic movement, free of the chains of massive television contracts, did what the IOC wouldn’t do, or couldn’t. In Sochi Russia won 80 Paralympic medals; Ukraine was second, with 25. Nobody else cracked 20. That is a farce, a grotesquerie. Russia used the same system that it used during the Olympics — a compromised lab, tampering with tamper-proof bottles, sliding samples of clean or dirty urine through a hole in the wall.
At these Olympics, doping shadows abound. Australian swimmer Mack Horton called China’s Sun Yang a drug cheat, and then beat him in the 400-metre freestyle final. The Sunday Times and German public television released a hiddencamera videotape in which Kenya’s Michael Rotich, the head of their track and field delegation, agreed to take $13,000 (U.S.) in exchange for warning purported British track coaches about upcoming doping tests, or arranging for them to be delayed.
He claimed to know specific testers, and said in Kenya his athletes — and others, since British athletes trained there — could avoid drug tests. Rotich was sent home immediately by Kenya, which was released from WADA’s non-compliant list this past week.
And of course, there are Russian athletes. Some may be clean, some dirty, like athletes from anywhere else. But every single one is a reminder of how little the lifeblood of this enterprise can be trusted.
There are issues with the logistics of these Games. Portugal’s education minister was robbed at knifepoint, apparently, which is some kind of lesson on the enduring blowback of colonialism, or something. The security system worked more efficiently the second day, and food and water returned to most venues. There are still problems. There will likely be more problems. Watch for buses, and knives, and bullets, and sofas.
But the athletes will save it. They always do. And that’s what made Sunday so clarifying. The IOC gave the Games to Brazil when times were booming, but they had to know this was a risk when it came to organization, to promises, to details. There are ragged edges all over. It’s still an airlift of money to elites.
Still, at least this time the IOC didn’t hand the Games to Vladimir Putin for him to poison, at least directly. Everything is relative, and Rio’s expectations are low enough to be painted on the floor, but in 2014 the Olympics were held in a country that made every effort to pervert the only thing that truly keeps the Olympics afloat, that salvages it every time. Imagine if FIFA gave the World Cup to a nation of matchfixers, and then let that nation back in the game the next time.
That’s what the Paralympics refused to do.
And what the IOC did.