Ban weaponised drug cheats permanently

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics have not yet moved centre stage for anyone other than the 11,000 or so athletes who hope to compete in one of 339 events

Ban weaponised drug cheats permanently

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics have not yet moved centre stage for anyone other than the 11,000 or so athletes who hope to compete in one of 339 events. Nevertheless, the games are under an ever more toxic cloud because of the performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) plague. The Olympics’ credibility crisis is so great that any successful athlete, even if innocent, will be a PEDs suspect. The medal podium is now more courtroom dock than unquestionable pinnacle. In an effort, a laughably ineffective one, to confront this cancer, the International Olympic Council (IOC) has stripped 140 dope cheats of medals. The majority have been stripped since 2000 and the greatest number — 48, including 18 golds — were stripped in athletics. The country with the worst record is Russia (or Russian associates) with 44, four times the number of the second worst offender and more than 30% of the total.

Russia’s contempt for sport and its athletes’ well-being was highlighted this week when the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) confirmed it had not got doping data from Moscow by a December deadline. Wada was humiliated when a demand, set when it foolishly lifted a three-year suspension on the Russian anti-doping agency, was ignored. That roll-over provoked anger and Sport Ireland chief executive and Olympic medallist John Treacy expressed some of it when he criticised IOC president Thomas Bach who signalled that Russia will not be banned from Tokyo. Treacy, echoing sentiments like those directed towards Fifa’s Sepp Blatter in the twilight of his colourful career, said Bach’s remarks are “deeply unhelpful” and that the IOC is “out of touch”.

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