Russia has found themselves banned from competition in the Winter Olympics.

The Olympic games is considered to be the absolute pinnacle of sporting events, leading the charge and setting an example to many competitive events including bodybuilding and mixed martial arts. The games were created with the idea in mind to crown the best of the best athletes in individual categories. The presentation, the spectacle, all of it has inspired so many great athletes and promoters alike to break through barriers and achieve greatness.

So when it was announced that Russia had been caught administering performance enhancing drugs to their athletes, it came as a major blow to the integrity of the Olympic games. As such, the International Olympic Committee has seen fit to take action against Russia for this unprecedented doping scandal. The I.O.C. has decided to ban Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics.

It’s the first time in the history of the Olympic Games that such a move has been deemed necessary and all of it in the hopes of bringing back honest competition between athletes. But the decision to bar Russia from competing in the Winter Olympics also serves as a major wake up call to would-be dopers.

While Russia may be barred from competing, the I.O.C. has left the door open for individual athletes to petition for the right to compete at the South Korean Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. But there’s a catch. Those athletes who have undergone rigorous doping tests and have showed integrity throughout their sporting careers will indeed have an opportunity to compete, but must do so from a position of neutrality. In other words, those Russian athletes who compete must do so wearing neutral colors and essentially compete as an individual.

This ban has led to speculation that Russia will boycott the Winter Olympics in a show of united and civil retaliation. For now it’s a waiting game to see what happens next.

With so many athletes competing from around the world, it is rather difficult to ensure that every event is devoid of dopers. In reality there are still going to be athletes that slip through the cracks from time to time. It’s an unfortunate truth that both athletes and fans are going to have to accept. But that doesn’t mean action can’t be taken against those who would choose to taint the sport through their usage of PEDs. Shining a light on this doping scandal will only help to clean things up.

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24 COMMENTS

    • It is if you get caught. Let’s be honest, I don’t think anyone has done it on the scale of the Russians. Government run and sponsored doping. Only in Russia, China and possibly North Korea ?

    • You kinda missed the point. You need something called “evidence” if you’re gonna throw round accusations of doping. In this case the evidence was not only conclusive, it was so damning that they were thrown out of the winter Olympics. You get single athletes caught all the time and stripped of titles. In this case they decided because it went so far and the doping was at such a high level they had no choice to ban them and Good! Jeremy Facebook is probably not the best platform to admit murder either.

    • You Don’t need evidence
      Who do you think runs the Olympics?
      Russians are major competition.
      No one will ever be in Olympics without using performance enhancers of some sort. Some people dont get caught. Everyone uses.

    • If you think performance enhancers are cheating you are ignorant and naive. Every single sport uses them. From mma to bbing to wrestling to cycling. Its not cheating at all. Its stupid to not use anything.

    • Let’s remember the last year scandal with a cleaner who “occasionally” destroyed a doping test of American athletes for the last 26 years)) she “occasionally” broke 30000 tubes with tests right after doping scandal. Come on boy, this is circus, nothing to do with sports. WADA looks like a clown and you still believe that only Russians use doping ?

    • First off, when you say “occasionally”, I think you mean “accidentally”. Secondly, I’ve never suggested it’s just the Russians that are involved in doping. My point was that they were caught and action needed to be taken and something had to be done to avoid the Olympic committee looking like total idiots. Also, yes other countries and athletes are involved 100% for sure, however, with the Russians, this was at the highest level of organised doping. Putin himself sanctioned the mass doping of his countries athletes. That’s like Trump organising and paying for all athletes to be systematically given PEDs. You guys would be torn apart in a legal argument because your opinions are all based on circumstance, opinion and hear say. My point was the Russians got caught at a very high level and they can’t turn around and say “yeah but everyone else does it” ?

    • To say it’s not cheating if everyone does it is wrong. The rules categorically state you cannot take certain banned substances, so yes it is cheating. If you get caught, expect to pay the price. If you get away with it then fine, but don’t fucking cry about it if you get banned. Your argument suggests that if it’s done by the masses then it’s okay, clearly it isn’t. I can’t speed down a motorway at 100mph and if the police stop me to give me a ticket say “come on officer, everyone speeds”.. in your eyes that should get you off Yeah? ?

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