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Russian athletes have escaped a proposed blanket ban on their participation in the upcoming Rio Olympics:
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected clarion calls for Russia to be banned from next month's Rio Olympics over the nation's doping record, offering athletes a lifeline by ruling that decisions on individual competitors will be left to the international sports federations. The IOC's decision on Sunday, less than two weeks before the Rio Games opens on Aug. 5, follows the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) call for a blanket ban in response to the independent McLaren report that found evidence of state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
[...] The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said the IOC had failed to show leadership with its decision. "Many, including clean athletes and whistleblowers, have demonstrated courage and strength in confronting a culture of state-supported doping and corruption within Russia," USADA chief Travis Tygart said. "Disappointingly, however, in response to the most important moment for clean athletes and the integrity of the Olympic Games, the IOC has refused to take decisive leadership. The decision regarding Russian participation and the confusing mess left in its wake is a significant blow to the rights of clean athletes." Russia's Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko, said the decision cleared the way for Russian participation. "I hope that the majority of international federations will very promptly confirm the right of (Russian) sportspeople in different types of sports to take part in the Olympic Games," Mutko said.
Previously: All Russian Athletes Could be Banned From Competing at the Rio Olympics
(Score: 2) by caffeine on Monday July 25 2016, @05:17AM
I'm not keen on a blanket ban as some honest athletes may get included.
I think a better solution is to set up a system where 50% of prize money and sponsorships for professionals in any sport are held in trust and a blood sample taken and stored for all major wins. After 10 years, old samples are retested and and if they are clean the money gets released. If the are a cheat, the money in trust is used to fund the anti-doping authority and to pay compensation for any clean athletes who missed out due to the cheating of others. A change like this is far more likely to address cheating in sports.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday July 25 2016, @02:30PM
Change the sport rules or entire competitions to eliminate the advantages of doping.
Mostly drug taking seems to result in higher strength and somewhat better cardio, so eliminate that as a competition factor.
Personally I'm more impressed with a dude who can bullseye a gnat with a javelin at 100 yards than a dude who kinda throws a stick a little further than the other dude throws a stick.
Running faster than the idiot next to him is pretty dull. Lets try competitive orienteering. Heres a compass and directions and nothing else, there's a geocache out there somewhere...
High jump over a stick is kinda boring. Lets see who can limbo-jump thru a hole 1 mm larger than he (she?) while minimum 10 feet in the air at a running high jump.
Something like a game of lawn croquet or basketball free throws with a shotput is more interesting than seeing how much roids it takes to throw a heavy ball. I went thru a grenade qual course in the army, why not throw real live grenades instead of shotputs? The qual course had a lot of stupid "far as you can" parts but also plenty of "throw thru that tiny hole".
You can also do weird things to rules to make strength and cardio irrelevant. Could you butcher the game of volleyball into some kind of ridiculous sprint where its over so fast cardio doesn't matter and the court is small enough that strength won't help? Or the pace of the game is turned down such that cardio dope won't matter? Having to win a volleyball game based solely on aiming skill, tactical awareness, and teamwork, rather than who gets tired of jogging first... hmm. Also see basketball, same idea. Imagine a basketball game where the result doesn't depend on who gets tired of jogging first...
So baseball players juice like fiends because it helps with hitting and to a lesser extent with pitching. So replace the pitcher and hitter juicers with a trebuchet the hitter uses to toss the ball and try to run the bases. Turns it into a weird mental game of where to aim based on scoring position and opponent skill. Play with field dimensions until juicing won't pay off for the fielders and its unclear what strategy is superior for the shooter.
I've always thought a fascinating extension to american football would be a bid-take rather than 10 yards per down. Or, although this sounds like a bad joke, give them 2 or 3 balls. You could make an interesting strategic thinking mans game out of boring ole football if you tried. I used to be into football although that puddle isn't very deep so I got bored with it. How about walls or ditches on the field instead of boring open field? Make it a game of strategy not a game of roids.
A lot of sports and gaming seems to depend on what poor rural people did for a good time 100 years ago, but in the modern era all kinds of weird dedicated stuff can be built pretty cheaply.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 25 2016, @02:53PM
Olympic billiards! Texas hold-em!