Has Doping Killed Athletics As A Sport?

[ToraToraTora]

are the latest allegations the last straw?

[ToraToraTora]

sadly, it seems so DB, no doubt there are clean athletes but they are inevitably tainted.

[ichkeria]

I think the real question should be: will Lord Coe and the IAAF take the recommended action and immediately ban the Russian athletics federation from all international competition indefinitely as WADA has recommended?

Doping may be a problem in sport, but what we are looking at here is something else entirely: a state-sponsored doping operation on a massive scale. And they've already denied everything. It is hard imagine how anyone could make any of this up ...

[New Judge]

I'm afraid I'm with db as well. For me, the headines would read "Athlete wins gold medal without the aid of performance enhancing substances".

I know that's probably a bit harsh as I'm sure there are some clean competitors. But the sport has become so tainted (which I think began with the Russians and East Germans way back) that I cannot be bothered to take any interest in it. I wish My Lord Coe and his colleagues every success in cleaning up the sport (he always seems to find something other than a proper job to do) but I won't hold my breath.

[ichkeria]

That is a bit like saying we should no longer investigate and punish murder because humanity is fundamentally evil (!)

I must say I am not hopeful that Coe will do the right thing here

[SeaJayPea]

Probably the penultimate straw. Whether Coe is the man to deal with it isn't entirely clear to me.

Biggest penalty that could be imposed on Russia would be for FIFA to organise a separate World Cup somewhere else in 2018. Ah. yes.

[ichkeria]

Wrong sport unfortunately.
One of those most staggering things in this report, apart from the FSB (for god's sake) intimidating testers, is the fact that athletes like marathon runner Lilya Shobukova who failed tests were blackmailed by their own federation AND by the family of ex IAAF president Diack, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars to allow them to compete (in her case in the olympics. That is simply awe inspiring. Imagine if Paula Radcliffe had failed a test and UK Athletics told her they'd falsify the results provided she paid them £300,000. And suppose M15 had threatened violence against anyone who blew the whistle.
If Russian athletes are allowed anywhere near Rio in 2016 it will be outrageous. Meanwhile Coe surely has questions to answer. He was deputy for years to Lamine Diack, a man who is fast making Sepp Blatter look like Martin Bell ...

[zebo]

Is anyone really surprised re Russia? There were always questions regarding the old eastern block, similarly China's rise on the sporting field. The US regularly fields competitors who have been banned. Coe may be the man to tackle it, hopefully he has the guts to do what needs to be done.

[ichkeria]

I think the thing with Russia is that while some and possibly all countries have athletes who dope, and while other countries may have institutionalised doping, this looks more or less like state approved doping. So the country needs to be punished in the same way that individual athletes normally are
As for athletics and cycling being drug infested sports, one reason there are so many scandals is actually because there is so much testing. Most other sports don't have that. Who knows what more rigorous testing of them might throw up?

[DTCwordfan]

No, a chance for the Duke of Stratford to surface, inc. taking over Stratford Saye, booting out the current occupant, so to speak.

[New Judge]

“That is a bit like saying we should no longer investigate and punish murder because humanity is fundamentally evil (!)”

Not quite the same, ikky.

Athletics is essentially a game and nobody is harmed (apart from perhaps the cheats themselves) by competitors pumping various drugs and chemicals into their bodies. It would not matter too much if the perpetrators were allowed to continue. People would eventually realise (as I did long ago) that the whole business was rife with cheating and corruption and simply stop watching it. I stopped watching football for a similar reason – I was fed up with seeing players writhing around seemingly having been poleaxed and lying critically injured after having been blown over by the draught from an opponent passing by a couple of yards away only to make a recovery that would put Lazarus of Bethany to shame when they knew they had secured a penalty. No, the cheats can continue to ingest and inject all manner of stuff into themselves and carry on running and jumping with nobody taking any particular interest apart, perhaps from their pharmacists and doctors.

It’s not headline news. It’s been going on and well known for decades. It perhaps warrants a couple of lines on page 94 but that’s it. It certainly does not warrant 15 minutes on BBC’s 6 o’clock news that I have just watched. But it’s a problem made to measure for Lord Coe. To misquote Sir Winston Churchill (when he was speaking of Arthur Balfour) “If you want nothing of any significance doing, Seb Coe’s your man. There’s nobody better suited”. He has spent a lifetime (and made a very lucrative living) doing nothing of any importance and this latest task will suit him down to the ground.

[ichkeria]

"Athletics is essentially a game and nobody is harmed (apart from perhaps the cheats themselves)"

Ah well, that is alright then :-)

[ichkeria]

Have you actually seen the report New Judge? This isn't a few athletes "cheating". It's about bribery, blackmail, extortion and violence. In very high places. Much of the evidence has been passed to Interpol.

[jourdain2]

No, no, no, no! (OP) I PROMISE you that grass-roots athletics in the UK are squeaky-clean. This is from a country over which we have no control. All our (clean) athletes are furious that this is the case and that many have missed out on medals because of others cheating. Checks here are really stringent.

[New Judge]

No I haven’t read the report in full, Ikky. Like the sport itself, revelations about its corruption - however high the places are to which it allegedly extends - are of no surprise and of even less interest to me. I just assume, unless it is demonstrated otherwise, that most sports at international level are riddled with cheats and corrupt officials. At the end of the day it’s a game with huge amounts of money available for the participants, their minders and officials. This money comes from gullible spectators and TV viewers who believe they are watching competitors with the scruples of the Corinthian Casuals.

There’s no need to over egg the pudding. As with football some people who have had their fingers in the till have been caught out. It isn’t the first time, it won’t be the last. Anybody who takes part in or administers professional sport relies upon their own excellence or that of others to increase their earnings. It is little wonder therefore that dubious means are employed to ensure that excellence is achieved.

[Cloverjo]

Doping control should be run by an international agency, not left to individual countries to police their own athletes. I know there is an organisation called WADA which is supposed to be in overall charge, but it doesn't seem to have any teeth.