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Disgraceful Politicized Olympism |
| By
Stephen Lendman |
| An earlier article explained Olympism is more about profiteering, exploitation,
and cynicism than sport. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is hugely corrupted, promoting peace, unity, friendship, and sport the way it’s meant to be while undermining these ideals. Olympism’s dark side is all about profiteering, exploiting athletes, political intrigue, scandalous wheeling, dealing, collusion, and bribery, marginalizing the poor, other disenfranchised groups, and affected communities, sticking taxpayers with the bill, and providing nothing in return but hype and the illusion of amateur athletics at their best. Last December, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee, banning Russian athletes from participating under their nation’s flag, disgraceful actions, complicit with US hostility toward Moscow, acting as its imperial agent - despite no evidence of Russian state-sponsored doping. The practice exists in many sports, athletes deciding on their own to use performance-enhancing drugs. They should be held accountable for their actions, along with personal trainers and others if found complicit - not entire teams or nations without what’s known as evidentiary standards and burdens of proof required in credible legal proceedings. Banning clean Russian athletes reflects politicized Olympism. On Friday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected appeals by 45 clean Russian athletes and two coaches. They sought to reverse the IOC’s ruling, banning them from the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, begun on Friday. The CAS ruling lied claiming its panel found “that the Applicants did not demonstrate that the manner in which the two special commissions (the Invitation Review Panel (IRP) and the Olympic Athlete from Russia Implementation Group (OAR IG) independently evaluated the Applicants was carried out in a discriminatory, arbitrary or unfair manner.” The athletes and coaches were banned for being Russian, not doping violations. The corrupted IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) welcomed the ruling. Last week, CAS upheld the appeals of 28 Russian athletes and coaches, citing insufficient evidence of doping. Its ruling is supposed to be “final and binding upon the parties subject to recourse available.” Yet the IOC refused to invite 15 of these athletes to the games, claiming doping evidence against them exists, failing to provide evidence proving it. Head of Russia’s Winter Games delegation Stanislav Pozdnyakov said 169 Russian athletes are competing in Pyeongchang. Some of Russia’s best athletes were denied permission to participate, including six-time Olympic short-track speed skating champion Viktor Ahn, champion skeleton racer Aleksandr Tretyakov and bronze medalist Elena Nikitina, along with Olympic cross-country skiing champion Alexander Legkov, world cross-country skiing champion Sergey Ustyugov, and world biathlon gold medalist Anton Shipulin. The IOC’s December ruling banned dozens of Russian athletes from Olympics competition for life - for representing the wrong country, not evidence of doping. Disgraceful actions against Russian athletes provide more evidence of Olympism’s dark side, its politicized state - exposing the illusion of amateur athletics at their best. VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html |