Category: Rio Olympics

Russian track and field banned from Olympics

19/6/2016

The Russian track and field team has been banned from the Rio Olympics. The elaborate state sponsored doping scheme began to fall apart when suspicions arose regarding some of the athletes at the Sochi Olympics. Two heads of the testing organization in succession had sudden and unexplained deaths.

More recently a team from WADA sent to Russia to sort out the mess, claims that they were threatened by the Russian Federal Security Service and that many athletes have evaded drug testing with the collusion of their keepers.

Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, director of the anti-doping laboratory testing the Sochi athletes gave an explanation of how the testing procedure for the Sochi Games was corrupted. An elaborate scheme involving secret holes cut through walls and lists sent after midnight of whose samples needed to be ‘cleansed’ was revealed. Dr. Rodchenkov now lives in Los Angeles.

While the IAAF ban disqualified all Russian track and field athletes, there is some hope that the International Olympic Committee(IOC) will review the appeals and records of athletes that can prove that they weren’t cheating.

To bring a more human face to the damage that sports cheaters cause, this week Jared Tallent, Australia, was presented with a gold medal from the London 2012 Games. The athlete who held the gold medal was disqualified because of suspicion of doping.

Russia is not the only country that produces doped athletes. Ethiopia and Kenya are currently under investigation for doping. The money and prestige that individuals gain if they can earn a gold medal from the Olympics is a strong motive to try whatever works. Athletes from at least a dozen countries have been labelled cheaters.

Read More:
New York Times
The Washington Post

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Brazil Olympics soldier on despite the odds

21/5/2016

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Games mascot

Cheaters, bribes, disease and crime seem to be elbowing the athletes for Olympics 2016 out of the spotlight.

Unconfirmed reports have come in that two N. Korean runners took a short cut in the marathon to decide who would qualify for the Olympics. Cheaters are still being outed from the Russian winter games in Sochi. The murky world of the Russian drug testing labs has seen two directors die suddenly and a third director apologizing for the lapse.

Kenya is another country with sketchy testing for performance enhancing drugs. The World Anti Doping Agency(WADA) has declared the country non-compliant. Yet the Kenyan athletes are still allowed to compete at the Rio Olympics. They will be on a watch list.

But not all is cheating with performance enhancing drugs. Both Australia and the IOC are set to distribute a half million condoms for the athletes who stay in the village. The Aussies will supply Zika-proof condoms which come lubricated with an anti-viral substance. The IOC is set to distribute free of charge, 100 000 female and 350 000 male condoms. It makes this writer wonder if the athletes will be too tired to compete during the medal rounds.

Whether Brazil will be ready to host the first ever southern hemisphere Olympics remain a question. Adding to the country’s complications is the political turmoil. The president Dilma Rousseff, has been kicked out of the presidential palace in Brazilia while the vice-president has taken over. She has been ousted while an impeachment action is taking place. The country seems divided over this and massive street demonstrations grab the headlines.

The unexpected drop in oil products has left the country in a bad economic way. Added to that is an investigation as to where about two billion dollars in oil revenues went. This has meant that money originally earmarked for Olympic venues and added security has had to be cut by $600 million. A spectacular bike/pedestrian pathway recently collapsed into the ocean killing a couple of unfortunate walkers.

Budget cuts have seen the contracts cut on the tennis and equestrian venues cancelled. The sewage problems remain, the subway will probably be incomplete by August 5, opening day.

Once this year’s games are done and the medals put away, the organizers in Japan can start their hoopla. Front and centre this week was the suspicious $2.6 million paid during the Japanese bid for the games. The Japanese have stated that they will cooperate completely to solve the mystery payment.

Sources:
CBC News
The Guardian
Global News

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Sports cheaters using heart meds to increase performance

23/3/2016

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Did she or didn't she?

It seems that some top athletes will cheat to maintain their careers and to stay in the lime light. Recently a new performance enhancing drug has been added to the long list of banned substances. It is a Latvian prescription only drug used to treat heart problems. The drug, meldonium, has proved useful for heat patients to help increase ability to exercise. It is usually prescribed for a course of six weeks.

The World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA) warned athletes of the ban effective January 1 of this year. Elite athletes, whether professional or amateur, are responsible for ensuring that they are ‘clean’ when they compete.

The drug burst into the public consciousness when top seeded tennis player Maria Sharipova tested positive for the banned substance in early March. Many more athletes have also tested for the banned substance, many from Russia and eastern European countries. The count is currently up to 100 positive tests.

Russia is currently under scrutiny for its doping of athletes. It is alleged that the doping is state sponsored. WADA is debating whether to ban all the Russian athletes from the upcoming 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.

Strange things have happened since the scandal broke in Russia. The head of the lab in charge of testing athletes for banned substances met an early death. His successor quickly followed when he suffered what was an apparent heart attack after an afternoon of cross country skiing. The lab has had its certification suspended due to irregularities.

The Russian sports minister assured the public in an interview that he was confident than no Russians were taking the banned substance. Shortly afterwards it was announced that four more athletes had tested positive.

August is coming up quickly for these athletes. Some may have openly consumed the drug before the ban and are slow to eliminate it from their bodies, but positive tests may keep them out of the Olympics.
Sources:
CBC News
Wikipedia
Fortune

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Rio holds junior world championships in dirty water

12/8/2015

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The American junior rowing team was hard hit with a stomach bug after competing in a lake at Rio de Janeiro, the same body of water in which the 2016 water sports will be held. The young people affected exhibited vomiting and diarrhea.

Other teams were affected, but not to the same extent as the US team. Thirteen out of 40 rowers were ill at last count on the US squad. Four staff members of the US team were also affected. Their team doctor surmised that the level of pollution in the lake may have been the source of the illness.

Brazilian Olympic officials and the Mayor of Rio were quick to deny that any problem exists. The US Olympic coach allowed that a slip in precautions could have caused the rash of illness.

“As soon as kids started going down, we were bleaching oar handles, we were immediately washing hands after coming off the water,” she said. “Other countries didn’t allow water bottles at all. Other countries had water bottles in zip-locked bags” - National Post

Brazil will be the first southern hemisphere nation to host an Olympic Games. They have been particularly criticized for their failure to control sewage and general garbage that finds its way untreated into waterways and eventually the ocean. High counts of dangerous viruses and bacteria have been found. Much of Rio has no sanitary sewer system, including many modern looking apartment buildings.

Brazilian officials are also trying to reassure those participating in equestrian events that there is no danger of contagion from the bacterium that causes glanders, a communicable and fatal disease. The venue where the equestrian events are to be held had recently had a positive case of the disease.

The horses that would compete in the Olympics, aside from their value as a sentient and beautiful athlete, carry hefty price tags. Highly skilled equestrian horses may have multi-million dollar price tags.

Glanders had been eliminated in the US, Canada and Europe for decades. It is endemic in Brazil among that country’s horses, donkeys and mules.

Sources:
Reuters
National Post
The Richest

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Rotten fish float in Rio Olympic lagoon

14/4/2015

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Rio de Janeiro in Brazil will be hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics. They have the honour of being the first South American country to host them. The Games were awarded to Rio amid much hoopla and celebration. It is now likely that some of the Olympic Committee are having second thoughts.

There is no debate about the stunning setting that Rio has with a combination of ocean, lagoons and mountains. Over six million people call it home. And many hold their nose while doing so.

You can imagine the garbage and sewage that six million people produce daily. Now imagine the mess if two thirds of the people have no garbage pickup and two thirds of the sewage is not treated, but is allowed to drain into waterways and canals. It is not just those unfortunate to live in the slums that dump untreated sewage directly into nearby waterways. This weekend past, hundreds of people demonstrated their anger over a modern condominium block contributing to the city’s stench.

Yesterday thousands of fish were found floating on the surface of the lagoon that serves as the backdrop to the Olympic Park. Officially, the cause of the mass die-off is a drop in water temperature.

The canal that residents were protesting drains into the lagoon that surrounds the Olympic Park. Water quality checks already show that antibiotic resistant bacteria thrive in the polluted lagoon. Previously, the venue for rowing and canoeing, Guanabara Bay, made headlines for its filthy condition. A new sport has been added – kiteboarding will also likely be held on the bay which has been described as a latrine.

While some effort has been made to filter out large pieces of garbage like sofas, no effective means have been taken to remove the bacteria laden sewage dumping.

It may be that some Olympic athletes will be taking home more than medals in August of 2016.

Sources:
Al Jazeera
Rio Olympics 2016 Athletes Set to Dodge Poop and Other Floaties
Olympics. Org
Business Insider

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Russian track and field banned from Olympics

Brazil Olympics soldier on despite the odds

Sports cheaters using heart meds to increase performance

Rio holds junior world championships in dirty water

Rotten fish float in Rio Olympic lagoon

Barbara McPherson

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