Virginia wrote:Moreover, I have heard rumours about the use of performance-enhancing substances from Russian and Soviet athletes going back decades -- too many to discount.
We all know that in many countries there were cases of using doping in the past and at present. Russia and the Unites States are among them. Question to WADA - shouldn't it improve their work?
Virginia wrote: I would like to point out that the Russian media is state-controlled, and therefore hardly objective when it comes to accusations of malfeasance against the state-run Russian sports authority.
Not certainly in that way. Now in Russia, not all media is controlled by the State. There are opposition media companies that are even funded from abroad. But in the case of doping, they were all more or less united. Today everyone happily presented the news about the justified athletes in such a way that justice triumphed.
Virginia wrote:We are faced with two facts:
1) no-one in the Russian government, the Russian sports authority or the Russian Olympic committee has admitted that the doping and swapping of dirty urine samples for clean took place. Until there is an admission of guilt, suspicions will always remain.
Look at it from the other side. The Russian Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sport could had no information about any alleged substitution of dirty samples for clean ones in Sochi. Even if that took place.
Virginia wrote:Was Adelina Sotnikova's gold medal a result of doping? What about Volosozhar and Trankov? What about the team gold? What about Medvedeva's last two years? And on and on and on. Are they all cheats?
Do you think they cheated? I think you are the only one who thinks so.
Virginia wrote:I think the Paralympic Committee made the right decision: a blanket ban. I salute them for their courage, and I wish the IOC had shown the same resolve. A blanket ban of all Russian athletes -- perhaps for one or even two full Olympic cycles -- might have been enough to convince the Russian sports authorities to change their ways. ...
Actually Russian paralympic athletes will participate in the coming Olympics in Korea.