Bar ALL Russians from the Rio Olympics says Brit hero Daley Thompson
Two-time gold-winning athlete says dope ban should apply to all of the country's competitors and not just track and field
I AM delighted by this ruling. I’m appalled that anyone should want to cheat doing the sport I love.
But now it’s been proven. The Court of Arbitration of Sport has looked into this and seen that the Russian athletes and Russian federation have been complicit in cheating the clean athletes.
So this ruling is a victory. It’s not the end of this war but they’ve won a battle. There’s no room for cheats at the Olympics.
I’m personally pleased that the World Anti-Doping Agency, which I have always said was fairly useless, has finally done something to fully justify its existence.
It’s taken long enough but at least it looks like it might have some teeth after all. Now the spotlight is turned on the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
It needs to stand up and be counted. It needs to get tough. It frequently prevaricates and tries to please and appease. But now it needs to show some balls.
More than ever, this is one of those times when the committee needs to stand up for all clean athletes, the dedicated, passionate folk who would never dream of cheating. So in the spirit of sport, the IOC should ban ALL Russians from competing — in every sport.
Yes, it’s a tough stance. But just look at what we are dealing with. This has been institutionalised government-sponsored doping, a wholesale programme of deception designed to pull the wool over the entire world’s eyes.
Could there be a more sinister attempt to lie and cheat? The fact that Russia is in complete denial about it only shows there’s a lack of remorse or accountability.
When I heard about how widespread the doping was, I wasn’t surprised. Back in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, all over the world there was doping. But to hear that it is happening now at such a high level is so disappointing.
And it’s been allowed to go on. A lot of international sporting committees that have been in place have turned a blind eye.
But tough action is needed, not just as a deterrent but to show the world that those charged with caring about the sport actually do care.
Because what this doping scandal does is take people’s faith and belief away from clean athletes. And if people don’t have any belief in the performances, they won’t want to watch. Eventually you will have empty stadiums, no money and no kids wanting to play the sport.
The fact that Russia is in complete denial about it only shows there’s a lack of remorse or accountability
In just about every field of human participation, humans cheat. They want to take the easy route because they’re lazy or they want the glory but don’t want to do the work.
But being an international sports champion is all about the hard graft.
Blood, sweat and tears are what make champions. All the champions I’ve met have got to the top of their game through hard work and determination.
I used to train 350 days a year, from six to eight hours a day. It’s a full-on job.
Yes, I would sometimes eat a McDonald’s then go and train — but I did put the work in.
I had lots of suspicions about others. As a clean athlete you do suspect at times that others might be cheating but worrying about it just puts you off your game. As an athlete, all you should be doing is getting prepared for your next race, jump or throw.
The one thing all clean athletes have in common is we want and expect a level playing field. The only thing that governing bodies are supposed to do is provide that.
But too often they get caught up in other things that they see as more important — TV contracts and money. They get blindsided and do things they shouldn’t, thinking it will help the sport, but it doesn’t. They think about how people want to see world records being broken and they need to secure lucrative TV contracts that will give the sport the best audience.
What has happened down the years is that the cheats are often given lenient punishments. When athletes get caught taking drugs, they get let off.
You only need to look at American sprinter Justin Gatlin who has twice been convicted for drugs. He was banned for just two years (reduced to one) and then four years. Now he has been allowed to return and compete again for all the major championships, including Rio next month.
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Of course, one of the arguments against a total ban on all Russian athletes competing in the Olympics is that it would punish the clean ones. But there are so many clean rival athletes affected by Russia’s cheating — we need to look after them.
There’s a great line from a Star Trek movie in which Mr Spock says: “Sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
So you have to look after the majority of people in the sport who are clean.
I’m hoping and praying the IOC wakes up, says enough is enough and actually does something for the good of sport — as opposed to kicking it into the long grass or turning a blind eye.
If people say, “Why are you picking on Russia?”, well, the simple reply is that they are the first ones to be caught.
So I hope this latest case is just the beginning and not the end of it.
There are a lot of other countries that have doping problems and they also need looking into.
They could start with Kenya. If they have nothing to hide, what’s the problem?
Sportspeople spend their lives and energy trying to capture their dreams, and what has been allowed to go on is disgraceful. So there’s the potential for this ruling to be a pivotal moment for the whole world of sport.