The banning of the Russian Track and Field team by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was a decision that had to be made.
The facts were indisputable, but to actually go through with the ban required a fair amount of intestinal fortitude.
I mean, this is Russia we’re talking about,the land of Vladimir Putin, in most cases you don’t tell him what to do – he tells you.
But if Russia has instigated a state-run systematic doping regime, then the international sporting bodies have to act.
So far, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the IAAF have done so. The International Olympic Committee must also act in the same way and ban the Russian track and field team from competing at the Rio Olympics.
It’s a good thing too.
The authorities are trying to control the mosquito population and contain the Zika virus. Imagine how hard those mozzies would be to control if they got juiced up on a few Russians during competition.
But I digress.
There are now reports that other Russian athletes may be banned depending on a report written by law professor Richard McLaren.
If McLaren can confirm that the Russian government helped other athletes in other sports to cheat then the whole country could be banned from Rio.
Time is of the essence though as this report is set to be handed down on 15th July and the Rio Olympics are set to start on 5th August.
It doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for the relevant authorities to get together, shake their heads and then vote on whether they ban their sport’s Russian athletes from Rio.
But this isn’t really the issue. The issue is trying to find out just who else is doing the same kind of thing.
Chances are another government isn’t out there producing Ivan Drago replica’s like the Russians apparently were, but there would be smaller pockets of athletes, coaches, sports medicine experts and so on, working together to achieve the highest goal that an athlete can achieve.
In this case, it is an Olympic gold medal.
In other cases we could be looking at, oh I don’t know, the coveted “Yellow Jersey” of the Tour d’France?
What about immortality as one of the greatest to ever hit, oh I don’t know, a baseball out of San Francisco’s AT&T Park – home of the San Francisco Giants.
Or how about pitching like a man possessed for the Yankees to win several championships?
And then we have the tennis courts of the world’s grand slams. Maria Sharapova anyone?
The Russian developments may well be shocking, but it isn’t new.
East Germany ran their own version of this many years ago and it seems that nothing has changed.
Athletes are still getting caught. Coaches are still getting caught. ‘Sports Scientists’ are still getting caught and it seems state-run regimes are still getting caught.
It is common knowledge that the technology used to detect drug cheats is behind the technology cheats use.
And that is the scary thought.
For the many that are caught, just how many more are running, hitting, cycling, throwing and swimming around with more than just blood flowing through their veins?
We have always been playing catch-up; I’m afraid we always will.
For as long as someone has an urge to do anything to win, there will always be someone there to help.
Especially if they don’t think they’ll get caught.
And that only gets stronger if the person helping works for the government.
What could go wrong?
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This article first appeared on TopBetta HERE.