Sport fights Russia harder

“We have to do this. We have to stand together. Sport gets the message across. It is a very effective way to make a point because it is watched by millions all over the world. You can see how important sport is to Russia. Vladimir Putin spent billions hosting the Winter Olympics and the World Cup. He understands its power and loves nothing more than celebrating the success of Russian sportsmen and women.” – Barry McGuigan

Sport is pushing back even more against Russia for its continued presence and mounting atrocities in Ukraine. Former world featherweight boxing champion Barry McGuigan echoed Ukrainian former world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s call for world sporting organizations to turn its back on Russian athletes. Klitschko’s brother Vitali is the mayor of Kyiv, which is at the center of Russian hostility.

Putin himself has a track record of skirting the rules or breaking them altogether. In the 2017 documentary “Icarus,” producer and competitive cyclist Bryan Fogel exposed institutionalized doping on the part of Russia. This resulted in Russian athletes being under suspicion of doping at their own 2014 Sochi Winter Games, and almost being banned entirely from the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Fogel collaborated with Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of the Russian Olympic laboratory and, ironically, head of anti-doping in Russia. The pair showed how a cocktail of steroids injected at the right time and in the right amounts would be undetectable, even by World Anti-Doping Agency labs. Furthermore, Russian sports officials were complicit in swapping out “clean” urine samples of athletes who would be tested at the Olympic Games in Russia. This damning account has forced Rodchenkov to be placed under the Witness Protection program in the United States.

In their initial revelation which was part of a documentary aired on German television, they claimed that “99 percent” of Russian track athletes used performance-enhancing substances. This got the attention of WADA, which was slow to act on the matter.  WADA then formed an independent commission which found many of the allegations to be true. Putin held a press conference calling for an investigation, saying “Sport should be fair.” Rodchenkov claimed that this had been going on since the 1980’s.

Later on, the evidence led all the way to Putin himself. The top officials at the Russian sports ministry were his closest friends. He either knew about or ordered the doping, and went after Rodchenkov, and bargained for Russian athletes not to be penalized.

It is often ill-advised to assume intent. But in this case, Putin’s Russia has shown a long-standing, calcified pattern of doing whatever he wants to get what he wants. He cheats, bullies, threatens and – allegedly – has people killed, even with regards to protecting his sports machinations. That is why the world should turn its back on Russian athletes who’ve gone along with him.