Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Of course Russian sport is corrupt, but then so are the Olympics
The Guardian ^ | Simon Jenkins

Posted on 02/11/2022 8:02:56 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

Russia was the IOC’s kind of country. It put chauvinism before money, and money before sport. It spent like mad and doped like mad. When in 2014 the desperate Stepanovs broke cover and gave their ignored material to the media, the balloon went up. The IOC even admitted to being embarrassed, though it revealed its true opinion of whistleblowers when it allowed other Russian athletes to compete at Rio 2016, but banned Yuliya Stepanova. That is what international sport does to those who do not play by its rules.

Supranational bodies will go on corrupting sport and enjoying themselves by Swiss lakes as long as they remain unaccountable oligarchies...Britain’s Olympic officials knew about doping, because every athlete knew. The trouble, as Stepanova poignantly indicated in a 2016 BBC interview, is that something is not news when everyone knows it, except the public.

All pleas for the return of dignity to global sport will fall on deaf ears as long as it is run not by athletes and their colleagues, but by governments in thrall to cartels such as Fifa and the IOC. Great sporting events can give pleasure to millions, but they can do so at a fraction of the present cost, and without the crude corruption of young bodies with drugs. As it is, international sport has been hijacked by a monopolistic elite of individuals and corporations, their activities regulated only by occasional bouts of bad publicity.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Society; Sports
KEYWORDS: china; doping; olympics; russia

1 posted on 02/11/2022 8:02:56 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

The last time anything olympics related interested me was when that bobsledder (or was it luge?) was killed at Whistler. I stopped watching the olympics AND the academy awards back in the mid-80’s.


2 posted on 02/11/2022 8:04:15 AM PST by cuban leaf (My prediction: Harris is Spiro Agnew. We'll soon see who becomes Gerald Ford, and our next prez.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

I used to have a passing interest in the Olympics, but have since come to realize it is a staged show like everything else in the media. The contrived, melodramatic stories. The inordinate worship of the specifically anointed athletes. The crass commericalization of it all driving the former.


3 posted on 02/11/2022 8:10:41 AM PST by fwdude (If a fraudulent election falls in the woods and no judge is around to hear it, did it fall?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fwdude

Don’t forget the idiotic ‘medal counts’ - which is exactly the antithesis of the alleged Olympic ideals.


4 posted on 02/11/2022 8:29:07 AM PST by larrytown (A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Russians are natively corrupt. That’s what seventy years of communism does to a society.


5 posted on 02/11/2022 8:47:25 AM PST by MercyFlush (DANGER: You are being conditioned to view your freedom as selfish)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

FU Olympics.


6 posted on 02/11/2022 9:01:21 AM PST by WKUHilltopper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Guess I misunderstood at first. When it mentioned the IOC, I guess I was thinking of AOC.


7 posted on 02/11/2022 10:24:23 AM PST by oldtech
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson