Discussion » Questions » Sports » Did you hear the Russian Olympic team might be banned from the Rio games for performance-enhancing drug abuse and irregularties in testing for PEDs?

Did you hear the Russian Olympic team might be banned from the Rio games for performance-enhancing drug abuse and irregularties in testing for PEDs?

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Apparently, it first came to the world's attention because of some...um, irregularities during a synchronized swimming competition...;-D...

Posted - July 19, 2016

Responses


  • 46117

    Why didn't that country read about disgraced racing cyclist, Lance Armstrong?    Don't they get it?  It is far more embarrassing to be found doing this sh*t than coming in second.

    or Third or whatever.    All the glory Lance could have won for himself just by being himself and winning a personal best with being able to compete at that level after being a cancer survivor several times over.    But that was not enough.   Now all he is chiefly remembered for is being an ahole and cheating.

    So, Russia?  Now people think you are an ahole too.  Booo.

      July 20, 2016 12:18 AM MDT
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  • Ah. .. The glory days of the female East German and Chinese female swimmers with such broad shoulders they'd make a lumberjack blush ... Those were the days
      July 20, 2016 12:34 AM MDT
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  • 3934

    Well, the thing about PEDs/doping is public reaction is inconsistent. During baseball's Steroid Era (roughly late-1980s through mid-2000s), the indirect evidence of doping was everywhere (Barry Bonds' head, guys gaining 30 lbs. of muscle in an offseason and tripling their home run output, etc.). But the press and the fans mostly overlooked it for years.

    Similarly, Lance Armstrong was revered for many years while he was doping up (although I've read reports French cycling fans would chant "Doper!Doper!" as Armstrong rode by) despite logic dictating he HAD to be doping. It was irrational to believe Armstrong was "clean" and could dominate a sport where EVERYONE trains about equally hard, and doping was rampant among competitors, yet people WANTED to believe it. And until someone got him with firm evidence, people mostly believed it.


    I vaguely recall someone I know/knew was a great admirer of Armstrong, and when I said I believed he was doping (this was about 3-4 years before it was publicly proven), the other person defended Armstrong. He ultimately let a lot of people down.

    Perhaps the Russians thought they could get their PR coup by dominating the Sochi Olympics with doped-up athletes, and then keep the scandal suppressed long enough that by the time it became known, people would be uninterested.

      July 20, 2016 12:42 AM MDT
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  • 3934

    Alas, I've read some horror stories about what such treatments did to the people who underwent them. Messing with the human endocrine system so dramatically is usually bad for health and longevity.

      July 20, 2016 12:59 AM MDT
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  • 17260
    Did I tell I've been a swimmer in my younger days?! *blushes*
      July 20, 2016 1:24 AM MDT
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  • 3934

    Did you have a 7-foot torso like a Russian synchronized swimmer?...;-D..

      July 20, 2016 10:04 AM MDT
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  • 17260
    Haha... Noooooo... I'm too curvy... I got broader shoulders than average, just like the swimmers but too heavy a "chest"... Lol.
      July 20, 2016 10:14 AM MDT
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  • A human resource ... to be used and discarded as needs dictates

      July 20, 2016 4:09 PM MDT
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  • We all were in our younger days ... that's how we got here lol

      July 20, 2016 4:10 PM MDT
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  • 46117

    OS, true enough.  I think I thought the same actually concerning what all the hubbub was about that he was doping, until I read what that meant.  It meant he was stealing the title from someone else who was following the rules and compromising the integrity of his team, not to mention himself.

    But at the time, I dismissed it because I simply believed everyone was doing it, because a lot of people were.  I think LA may have told himself that as justification of his behavior.

    I think maybe the Russians, known for being a little behind in how things are done these days, may have thought the same thing.  When you are shady, you rationalize  that everyone else is as well.

      July 20, 2016 4:13 PM MDT
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  • 2500

    That's OK. the makers of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra have each signed some of them to hawk their products so they'll do fine.

      July 20, 2016 4:25 PM MDT
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  • 1523

    Yes I did hear that.

      July 20, 2016 4:30 PM MDT
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  • 17260
    Oh, you too? Lol.
      July 20, 2016 4:37 PM MDT
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  • 3934

      July 20, 2016 4:43 PM MDT
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  • 3934

    If athletes thought boner pills would give them a competitive advantage (or, at least mask other substances which do grant a competitive advantage), I'm sure they'd take them.

    Based on reports I've read/heard about the amount of contraceptives provided for Olympic athletes in past Olympics, the participants don't seem to have much of an issue with the problems Viagra et al. are intended to alleviate.

      July 20, 2016 4:46 PM MDT
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  • Lol .. go back even further in time ... and add nine months :)

      July 20, 2016 6:17 PM MDT
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  • 3934

    That puts a whole new twist on the "Just Keep Swimming" song from "Finding Nemo"...;-D...

      July 20, 2016 6:36 PM MDT
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  • 17260
    Lol. True this. Well, I did swim later on a bit older too and more than once a week. ;-)
      July 20, 2016 10:34 PM MDT
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  • 17260
    :D
      July 20, 2016 10:34 PM MDT
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