Russia to be banned from Rio Olympics?

[aev]

Just listening to the WADA press conference - pretty jaw dropping stuff.

From a purely sporting perspective is it staggering, from a wider geo political perspective it is pretty worrying.

The London Olympics were sabotaged. State supported doping, Russian Secret Service present at Sochi and intimidating staff, and that Putin must have been aware of it all.

Oh, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Good luck Lord Coe.

[Monty]

They can't be the only ones doing it this badly - the Chinese athletes look very weird sometimes, and a lot of the Americans have that 'Ben Johnson' look in their eyes (as opposed to Jacobean playwright Ben Jonson - although he did write 'The Alchemist'). I suspect the Russians are just clumsier and don't have as good masking agents and so on, so rely on thuggier means to get away with it.

[aev]

Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko, criticised in Wada report into athletics doping, is a Fifa exec co member & World Cup 2018 organiser.

[Boz]

It shouldn't be a surprise that where there is lots of money, there will be a lot of sticky fingers.

I note however, that the report seems to be saying that the Commission can't believe the State didn't know about what was going on, but this seems to leave the Russians a door to escape through unless there is evidence that people working for the State were involved.

[MarkM]

I say just let them dope.

We can have the freakolympics then!

[UK Redsox]

I say just let them dope.

We can have the freakolympics then!

Or the Laff-A-Lympics

[olaftab]

They are all cheating. Us, them, every country  it's just to what degree that is the question.

[hipkiss92]

They are all cheating. Us, them, every country  it's just to what degree that is the question.

Not just athletics either, I doubt there's a sport that's untouched by it*.

*not counting darts as a sport at this poin

[Yossarian]

They are all cheating. Us, them, every country  it's just to what degree that is the question.

Not just athletics either, I doubt there's a sport that's untouched by it*.

*not counting darts as a sport at this poin

Beta-blockers would improve performance. Just like whatshisface at snooker.

[peter w]

Neal foulds?

[TopDeck113]

Russia banned from the Olympics? Not a snowball's.

[lovejoy]

A few middle level officials will take the fall and we move on.

[The Laughing Policeman]

I find it hard to believe that Seb Coe was Vice President of the IAAF for eight years and never had a whiff of this. Especially the bribery and extortion going on inside the IAAF.
I think he has a few questions to answer.

[aev]

I find it hard to believe that Seb Coe was Vice President of the IAAF for eight years and never had a whiff of this. Especially the bribery and extortion going on inside the IAAF.
I think he has a few questions to answer.

It is one hell of a mess. Lamine Diack was reprimanded twice before for dodgy dealings and he still ended up in the top job? I wonder how this happened? I guess he secured enough votes from people who weren't themselves bothered, which could be because they themselves were on the take....

[The Laughing Policeman]

Didn't one of the inquiry committee members say at the press conference that there's more to come, and it isn't just one country or one sport?