agip wrote:
well the covering up in the US was 30 years or more ago, right? Or are there covering up episodes since London? If it was 30 years ago...that's can't matter for anything.
and we aren't 'almost certain that doping is rife everywhere' - there is zero evidence of that. Distance running in UK, US, canada, australia, japan, scandinavia...super clean. really, doping seems to be in a handful of hotspots only. Do throwers even get caught anymore, except former soviet union athletes? I'm not sure.
Point is that you have no evidence of the 'rife everywhere' claim.
Except sprinters - globally, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Except the Japanese sprinters - they seem clean.
I guess it depends who you ask, but 30 years ago doesn't seem too long ago to me. And a lot of the people associated with the 1984 Olympic team are still serving in one capacity or another. You'll still see Bobby Kersee at the track, and you'll still see Alberto Salazar. That's just a couple of names that came to mind - I'm sure there are many more - and I'm only drawing from track & field. The situation is reminiscent of cycling, where the efforts at "reform" are seen as a joke by many, because the old known dopers are now managing teams, or have other roles in the infrastructure.
As far as whether those 2 names are guilty of anything, who knows?, but the point is, in a sensitive matter, you have to consider the other side's viewpoint. What will Russians see? They'll see the same old Americans, who cheated and went completely unpunished, now sending the same old warhorses out for another battle. Meanwhile, the Russians are banned for....get this...systematic cheating.
As for the argument that this is not an American action, but an action by the IOC and/or WADA - you know how well that idea will sell.
Regarding your claim that there is no evidence that doping is rife everywhere - I don't know where to start, other than to say, it's not like I'm making a controversial claim. Many, many people would agree that professional sport is riddled with drugs, including many with first-hand knowledge. In cases where an effort has been made to investigate - cycling, MLB, the BALCO case, etc - widespread doping has been proven. It seems unlikely that all the areas of rot have been uncovered. Positive doping tests happen all the time - not just to Russians. Why would Olympic athletes, as a general rule, be an exception to what seems to be the rule worldwide? Purity of spirit?