View From Abroad: Olympic Committee’s Shame

The International Olympic Committee could’ve delivered a strong public rebuke to Russia amid all the evidence Moscow’s athletes have been cheating. Instead, writes Ian Herbert at The Independent, IOC President Thomas Bach was mum about it at the opening ceremonies: “Not a word about the Russian elephant in the room. Just the conspiracy of silence that makes elite sport seem, to the outside world, like a network of wealthy bureaucrats and powerful politicians who feed off the fat and scratch each other’s bellies . . . Not only was there no mention of Russia last night, but there was nothing on the scourge of drugs whatsoever.” The IOC’s future pronouncements about the need to clean up the sport will ring especially hollow after this.