The Sporting Drugs Scandal In Athletics; WADA Way To Go To Rio

Just when cycling decided to dig up the past and thrust another installment of Operation Puerto down everyone’s throat ahead of the Tour de France, a judge ruling that the blood samples seized must finally be handed over to WADA, seemed like the big story the World Anti-Doping Agency would use to distract from the fact that most of the players at the Euro 2016 Finals look like they’re strung out on something and no one is mentioning it, they’ve released a report into Russian athletics.

Sporting Drug Scandal

• WADA report
• IAAF ban upheld
• IOC back fudge

Obviously those of you that like to bet on sports in the UK and follow the back page headlines will know that last November following a deplorable level of state collusion and corruption Russian athletes were banned from the Olympics in a massive sporting drugs scandal and this new report comes just days before the decision on whether or not to allow those Russians who have not been caught doping to participate. The problem is the report basically implies that any Russian who has not yet been caught doping is probably just as guilty and yet hiding from WADA testing.

Rio’s Woes

• Water Quality
• Cash Crisis
• Zika Virus

The sporting drug scandal has rolled on with dozens of athletes missing scheduled tests, hundreds refusing them altogether and others attempting to cheat on the urine sample provision, the report is entirely damning and coupled with accusations of bribery and intimidation of WADA testing officials it makes the chances of seeing Russian competitors in Rio look less and less likely. Publication of the report came just days ahead of the IAAF ‘final’ decision on Russian track and field athletes attending the Rio games, a decision that went against the Russians, and one the IOC publicly backed.

Sporting Drugs Scandal Implicates Russian Athletes

Naturally there has been the usual accusations of anti-Russian bias that have become part and parcel of any critical comment aimed at Moscow as Vladimir Putin continues the hybrid warfare that spans the entire gamut of human endeavor. With seemingly sanctioned football violence, the independent presence in Syria, and this push back against open and honest testing of athletes the Russians’ pleas for demonstrably clean athletes to compete in Rio has somewhat fallen on deaf ears as no one is entirely sure how to demonstrate any of them are clean and not part of the sporting drugs scandal.

If you’re in the UK gambling news headlines on the back pages will soon be laden with the sort of significant fudging of the major issues that international sports is well known for, you may not believe that this ban is as final and irrevocable as it is made out to be, and that at least a token Russian presence will exist at the games come August 5th. Naturally this would throw the spotlight of this sporting drug scandal over the entire Olympic competition, however that was likely to be the case anyway and it may distract from some of the other problems these games face even now.

Will Rio Overcome Pre-Games Chaos To Stage Another Success?

The water quality in the open water swimming and sailing venues it all but toxic, the host city had to impose a state of fiscal emergency upon itself so the government could lend it money to pay its bills and the security and Zika situations are still of paramount concern to hosts, participants and spectators, the idea the hoards of traveling media that will descend upon this glorious capital city might focus instead on a sporting drugs scandal may well be of some quiet relief to Rio, although the World Cup managed to be hugely successful despite similar chaos beforehand.

The sporting drug scandal that has engulfed Athletics does the sport no favor ahead of this summer’s games, but with the IAAF’s new President Seb Coe still running from corruption questions and WADA still getting to grips with cycling’s problems ten years down the line, it looks like it’ll get away with it again meaning you’ll be able to find all the odds on all the track and field events at Bet365 this August, although if you do take advantage of UK gambling laws, and the Russians actually arrive, you may not wish to back them with all the stringent testing they’ll undergo. They’ll probably be the only ones not on drugs.