Russia state-sanctioned doping
That Russia runs a state-sanctioned doping program to enhance the performance of its athletes is an open secret. I decried this phenomenon in the blog post “In Putin’s Russia Even Athletics Is a Criminal (Doping) Enterprise” on November 9, 2015.
Therefore, nobody should be surprised that Kamila Valieva has the women’s figure skating competition embroiled in a doping scandal. The only wonder is that there has been just one. But this is clearly a testament to advances in Russian masking agents.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced Saturday that the expedited hearing on Valieva’s doping case will be held Sunday night in Beijing, with a ruling by Monday afternoon. The 15-year-old skater, the favorite to win the gold medal, broke down in tears after an emotional practice session Saturday.
Valieva’s status at the Olympics became unclear after she tested positive for the banned heart medication, trimetazidine, in Russia in December. She won a gold medal in the team event five days ago, before the test result was known, and is scheduled to compete as an individual Tuesday.
(The Associated Press, February 12, 2022)
The irony, though, is that the face of Russian dishonesty, venality, and amorality in sports is now its youngest athlete. And I suspect this is so because Valieva’s body is not yet mature enough to effectively absorb the agents to hide the performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) she took – even if unwittingly.
Why allow them to compete?
Everyone knows it’s a complete farce that doped-up Russian athletes are being allowed to compete. The IOC is allowing them to compete as a “committee” instead of a country and under a supposedly neutral flag, which is conspicuously composed of the same three colors of Russia’s national flag.
But the integrity of Olympic competition now depends on the IOC suspending Valieva and stripping her team of its ill-gotten gold. Poetic justice would see that gold go to Team Ukraine. But it would go to Team USA, which won silver.
Russia’s gaslighting cries of persecution
Of course, stripping Valieva would trigger Russian President Vladimir Putin. He would undoubtedly rally Russians with gaslighting cries about a Western conspiracy to persecute their Mother Russia.
Putin’s tortured reasoning would be that this is the last straw in a series of unprovoked aggressions. And that, to fend off any more assaults on its national pride, Russia must retaliate by invading Ukraine. Got it?
Nothing betrayed Russia’s belligerent intent (or frayed nerves) quite like the erstwhile unflappable Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov losing his cool this week. It happened during a joint press conference in Moscow with his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
It was undiplomatic enough that he dismissed her as deaf and mute. But Lavrov abruptly left the stage without shaking her hand, let alone escorting her off, which left his guest and reporters stunned.
The world has come to expect such boorish and chauvinistic behavior from Putin, not from the usually polite and courtly Lavrov.
Olympic competition as cover for military aggression
Here’s a twisted symmetry: Putin used the Beijing 2008 Olympics as a cover to invade Georgia. Now, he seems intent on using the Beijing 2022 Olympics as a cover to invade Ukraine.
‘Innocent’ Russians?
I have great sympathy for Russian athletes, especially the relatively innocent ones like Valieva. Because their hard work and talent are so often self-evident. For example, watching Valieva perform, it’s easy to believe she would’ve blown all competitors away even without PEDs.
Unfortunately, the mere accident of birth has placed them in a no-win situation. Because their autocratic leader is hell-bent on subjecting them to systemic doping to gain an edge, whether they need it or not.
And his state-sanctioned doping is in pursuit of his own glory, not theirs. Indeed, Putin’s Napoleonic complex is so acute that he’s doping children to make Russia look bigger on the world stage.