I have been away for most of the Winter Olympics so far, so I have not been following events in any detail. Actually, I have been rather half-heatedly boycotting the Games because, well, China. But from the few snippets I have read or seen, it has apparently not been a particularly edifying spectacle.
Complaints of biased officials, complaints about the snow and the cold weather (!), complaints about the bureaucracy and red tape, none of it good. But you had to know that doping would be an issue at some point, and you had to know that it would probably involve Russia (which shouldn't even be computing at the Games anyway, after multiple drug offences over many years, but the IOC and CAS seems to have managed to square that with their collective consciences - how does allowing them to compete under the moniker "Russian Olympic Committee" instead of "Russia" constitute even so much as a slap on the wrist?).
The main problem seems to concern 15-year old figure skating prodigy Kamila Valieva. It seems she tested positive for a banned angina drug in December 25th 2021 (Merry Christmas!), but this was not publicly revealed until February 8th 2022, AFTER she had already competed (and wowed everyone).in the team event). Er, why? Did no-one check? She is saying that there must have been a mix-up with her grandfather, who has a heart complaint. Er, why? Was he being tested for the Olympics too?
I didn't quite understand it, but I THINK I read that there's a rule which says that, as a fifteen-year old, Valieva is too young to understand about doping, and so cannot be held to account. Er, why? It seems reasonably straightforward, and she is positively surrounded by handlers, trainers, physiotherapists and fellow competitors. Surely someone could have explained it to her? She was already taking at least two barely legal oxygen-boosting performance enhancers, so I don't really think we can consider her an innocent little lamb, despite Russian attempts to portray her as such.
Nobody from the Russian Olympic Committee, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, or any other august body, seems able or willing to explain the situation any better than this confusing (and totally unacceptable) summary.
Worse, to muddy the waters still further, the CAS and IOC is saying that Valieva can go ahead and compete in the singles competition this week, even with the total unresolved doping issues hanging over her (well, they want to see those quadruple jumps, don't they, and a bit of controversy spices up the TV ratings still further, after all).
The whole thing seems totally ridiculous and inexcusable to me. The Olympics has descended into farce once again. If the IOC is looking to repair its severely tarnished reputation, this is not the way to go about it. But then, they seem to be surviving quite nicely thank you without having to repair their reputation, mainly because people like sports and there is no real alternative. Sigh...
UPDATE
Turns out, it wasn't really an issue. Ms. Valieva fell multiple times during her medal routine and ended up placing fourth and out of the medals.
She was of course distraught, as only a fifteen-year old can be, and you have to feel sorry for the kid, to some extent anyway. A lot of the intense pressure she was under was of her own making, but a lot of it was down to her team and the whole Russian medal industry, and she should not have been caught up in this in the first place. And to think she'll probably spend the rest of her life in a Siberian gulag...
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