Well, there's a direct threat to life and limb if you cross Putin. The dead cannot speak or retaliate. Such aggression forms its own sort of protection from being held accountable and is a common tactic of violent aggressive criminal types with beautiful social facades.
www.usatoday.com
Ultimately it is a team, and if the team is cheating, they must be kicked out of the competition. I wholly agree that most athletes, but especially young ones, will trust their trainers and take what is given to them, but that doesn't mean they can compete doped up. I think if it can be shown the adults provided the drugs to the underage athlete there should be life time bans, while the athlete themselves should get a much shorter ban, but still get a vacation....as for Vileava and other 15 year old athletes being caught for doping, as minors, there is absolutely no possible way they could be held responsible for what is put in their bodies. The idea is completely absurd. Their status as minors holds a legal definition for a reason, with inherent protections reflecting human cognitive development and independence. And yes, these things can only be based on a seemingly arbitrary age, because going from individual to individual creates fuzzy legal arguments that will cheapen the whole enterprise. To say that she is responsible for the trainers and coaches and medical staff that are tasked beyond simply training her--but looking after her, taking care of her health and mental development is asinine. It is the same as arguing that the hundreds of young female gymnasts raped over 3 decades by that piece of shit Larry Fucking Nasser were responsible for being raped--because somehow the mentorship and subordination of authorities no longer means anything wrg to these power dynamics. We know that people, especially children, are susceptible to the advice and expertise of their mentors and that the relationships that are established here only work out of shared trust. Hell, employers generally establish rules for adults in office situations regarding relationships where are either forbidden or necessary to be reported when a direct-power dynamic is involved. We know this is true, so why would we argue that somehow, this 15 year old that spends most of her years away from her parents, training to be the best in the world, living in necessary trust of those completely responsible for her well-being is now responsible for understanding all the things that her expert team members are putting into her body? You think they are actually telling her the truth? lolwtf.
I don't get it, but be serious--there is no moral or legal argument that can be made for her being responsible for what those fucking Russian bastards did to her--those fucks will poison their neighbors just as soon as their enemies, so what do you expect? They've only been emboldened by the complete lack of punishment for wholesale cheating, so why are we surprised?
If anything, I think these kids should be recruited by other countries and allowed to compete for other nations that will have them. Shit, let's extradite these Russian skaters to the US and have them dominate under our flag. Wanna piss off Putin and castrate that bastard at the same time? There's one way to do it.
The NYT reports that two other heart meds (not banned) were also detected in the test sample.Apparently she was the using "contact high" defense.
Russian Kamila Valieva says her positive drug test was due to grandfather's medication
Attorneys for Kamila Valieva argued that trimetazidine entered her system through a medication that\u00a0her grandfather takes, an IOC official said.
This defense is fucking absurd.
It's amazing how many elite Russian athletes have undocumented heart issues.The NYT reports that two other heart meds (not banned) were also detected in the test sample.
Valieva's Sample Had 3 Substances Used to Treat Heart Conditions
The teenage Russian figure skater at the center of a doping case at the Beijing Olympics...www.sfgate.com
So did her pop-pop spike her water bottle with three different heart medications?
I'm not happy about the decision and haven't dug into it, but my understanding is that CAS did not want to adjudicate the facts of the doping "trial" on such short notice. That doesn't mean that they "cleared her to skate" necessarily, but that they didn't want to deliver the ultimate penalty immediately. Personally I believe in no tolerance for cheating and advocated for a DQ from the competition; but I'm also a little disappointed in the jingoism expressed by Lipinski and Weir.
Ultimately if she's proven guilty of doping, then she should be stripped of the medals from these games. And forever written into the history books as a doper. The crazy thing is that under age 16 do have special protection in doping regulations, so I'm not very optimistic in the long run.
They allow her to compete even though she tested positive for PED? That is some BS. I get that even if it's unintentional and all that, but to let her compete even after knowing that they found PED in her is unfair for everyone. They don't have to ban her, but she should be DQ'ed even if it's unintentional. I mean track athletes get DQ'ed for false start, so why can't they DQ her for having a substance in her bloodstream that may potentially give her an advantage in competition?
the score is closer than it seems.
Figure skating jumps used to involve a lot of power: jump as high as you can with strong legs and hope that will buy you enough time to get in some spins. But now that the scoring system highly values quad jumps and gives very little penalty to falls, the winning skaters need to be able to focus heavily on quad jumps. While powerful legs might be able to do it, relying on power is inconsistent. The consistent quad jumpers tend to be tall and gangly. This shape lets you spin much faster (just like pulling your arms in while spinning makes you turn faster). Putting your arms above your head, while difficult, makes you spin even faster making quads more achievable and you get bonus points for putting your arms up. So, even a moderate jump height from a gangly person lets you get triples and quads.
Since many of us still watch NBC over the air or on cable TV, no one will know if most of us boycott them (excluding the few who are Nielsen households). An invisible boycott doesn't change a thing. Boycott the sponsor products and boycott them loudly on social media if you want any chance of meaningful changes. Lack of sales is accurately measured whether you are a Nielsen household or not. But even then I find it doubtful to accomplish much.
Usually, I find the Olympics boring and don't have the time.Speak for yourself.... I'm so disgusted by the doping BS and the obviously biased judging that I've 99% skipped these Olympics.
Real shame .... some of the best sports-moments I've witnessed were in past Olympics.
If I want to see "fake" competition I'll watch pro-wrestling.
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