BLOG 34 THE RUSSIAN SCANDAL

BLOG 34 THE RUSSIAN SCANDAL

Growing up as an athlete, I was taught there are rules to the game and the referees officiate, the coaches coach, and my job is to compete within this structure. Somehow, the concept of winning can distort the game at play, be it gambling, recruiting practices, deflated balls, and now, the use of illegal performance enhancing substances. The recent Russian doping scandal shocked the athletic and Olympic world. Justice will take time, but for now, let’s take a look at what happened.

Someone always lets a secret slip, and rumors began to spread that Russia was covering up doping athletes in laboratories. The investigation has been suspicious and no one knows who they can trust. Undercover staff posed as laboratory workers, but were in fact members of the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB. For example, “In Sochi, the resort where Russia held the Winter Olympics last year, one lab worker cited by the authors reported a high-degree of intrusion. "We had some guys pretending to be engineers in the lab but actually they were from the federal security service," the staff member said” (http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/10/sport/russia-doping-report-shocking-things/). Essentially, the laboratories were covering up the “positive” test results for doping. To make matters worse, “In one of the most spectacular examples, it details the ‘intentional and malicious destruction’ of 1,417 test samples at the lab that a WADA team had specifically requested be kept. The director of the lab, Grigory Rodchenkov, ordered that the samples be thrown out just days before the WADA team arrived for an inspection in December, according to the report” (http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/10/sport/russia-doping-report-shocking-things/). To add to this, some track officials were given paid bribes to keep these positive tests a secret.

There are a few key figures behind the scenes of all this. To start, there’s Valentin Balakhnichev, who is the head of the Russian track federation and is being held most responsible. Sergey Portuglov is the head of Russian track federation’s medical commission and is accused of covering up tests. Lamine Diack is 82 years old, calls the accusations a “joke”. He is the, “The former president of track and field’s governing body and a former long jumper, soccer coach and government official in Senegal. Diack is under criminal investigation in France on corruption and money-laundering charges, accused of demanding money to hide positive drug tests by Russians” (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/09/sports/russia-doping-scandal-key-figures.html?_r=0). Another person involved in the investigation is Liliya Shobukhova, who is, “A Russian marathoner who won three times in Chicago and once in London. She was permitted to compete at the London Olympics despite abnormalities in her biological passport, according to reports, after paying a bribe of 450,000 euros ($483,000) to the Russian track federation” (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/09/sports/russia-doping-scandal-key-figures.html?_r=0). A couple other medal winners including Mariya Savinova and Anastayisa Bazdyreva who have been captured on tape and not cooperating in regards to their use of substances. These athletes face a lifetime ban.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, wants to punish the athletes individually, not as a whole. This seems fair for those who did not break the rules. He said, “"It is essential that we conduct our own internal investigation and - I want to underline - provide the most open professional co-operation with international anti-doping structures” (http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/34794489). As for now, the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Association) is handing the matter and deciding what actions will be taken against the athletes and in regards to the next Olympics.

The athletic world is losing its credibility with incidents such as this one. We marvel at athletes’ talents and admire their accomplishments, but there’s a right and wrong way of winning. I hope that the punishment fits the crime and that precedence is set. This scandal is not the first of its kind, but let’s hope the aftermath will deter these crimes from repeating themselves and we watch TRUE athletes compete in our next Olympic games.