DOPING DETERRENT NEEDED
If it’s serious about issue, IOC must ban cheating countries from Olympics
The tough talk hasn’t worked. Neither has erasing the occasional result and taking away the medal that went with it.
If the International Olympic Committee is as sincere as it claims about rooting out cheaters and getting the upper hand in the anti-doping fight, it’s time to take the gloves off. If — when — there is evidence of a systemic doping program, the entire country must be banned from the Games.
Not just an athlete here or there. Not even the entire contingent of an individual sport. Every athlete who would wear that country’s uniform.
Make it so the deterrent is more powerful than the incentive to cheat.
IOC President Thomas Bach appears to be coming around on that, saying in an op-ed released Tuesday that Russia’s ability to compete at the Rio Olympics could be dependent on results of an investigation into allegations the hosts cheated their way to gold in Sochi. Multiple times, in multiple sports.
“Should there be evidence of an organised system contaminating other sports, the international federations and the IOC would have to make the difficult decision between collective responsibility and individual justice,” Bach wrote in the op-ed, published by USA TODAY.
“It would have to consider, whether in such ‘contaminated’ federations the presumption of innocence for athletes could still be applied, whether the burden of proof could be reversed.”
Some will surely cry foul, saying innocent athletes will be made to pay the price for cheaters. But isn’t that what’s already happening? Hundreds of athletes who relied solely on their blood, sweat and tears have seen medals and records stolen by those pow-
ered by pharmaceuticals with unpronounceable names.
Earlier Tuesday, the IOC announced that 31 athletes in six sports could be barred from Rio after retests of their 2008 samples from Beijing found evidence of doping. Samples from London in 2012 are being retested, too, meaning the number of dirty athletes exposed is likely to climb.
This comes less than a week after the head of the Sochi antidoping lab detailed the great lengths Russia took to subvert the system and claim ill-gotten golds. There were three-drug cocktails chased with whiskey or vermouth. Urine samples swapped under the cover of the night — and under the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency’s noses.
“Should the investigation prove the allegations true it would represent a shocking new dimension in doping with an, until now, unprecedented level of criminality,” Bach wrote.
And yet the sordid tales by Grigory Rodchenkov came as the International Association of Athletics Federations is weighing whether to bar Russia’s track and field athletes from Rio after evidence of a widespread, statesponsored doping program.
It does not take a rocket scientist, or a Ph.D. in chemistry, to see this was not a one-off.
With the clamor growing for the IOC and WADA to do more, the Russians made a rare apology and promised to do better. But countries and programs with a proven history of doping should not get the benefit of the doubt — not at the expense of clean athletes.
Teams and countries cheat because they know they can, because the punishments often come years too late and with little consequence. A little embarrassment and quiet rewriting of the record book is a small price to pay for the glory of standing atop the podium when the world is watching, of seeing a country tower over the medals standings when everyone is keeping track.
Doping will never go away entirely. There will always be someone looking for a shortcut, someone willing to bet that the reward is greater than the risk of getting caught. But the anti-doping programs in place and advancements in science are strong enough to deal with those rogue athletes.
It’s when the government of a country gets involved, when systemic doping is not only allowed but also encouraged, that the Olympic movement is threatened. The ideals of fair play and respect for competition have to mean something — for the athletes as well as the public — or the Games will mean nothing.