It’s 2014, Sochi, Russia. Athletes from across the world come together to compete in a fair, just, and competitive atmosphere. That’s what the Olympics are supposed to be -- just. The top International Olympic Committee drug-scientists are there as well. They test for doping amongst the athletes to make sure they uphold the Olympic spirit. The testing goes smoothly and all of the samples are collected in due time without protest. But one scientist knows not all is fair and just, and his name is Grigory Rodchenkov, or the head of the state-led Russian doping scandal. He knows that directly across the street from the doping testing center lies a Russian intelligence building. He knows that they will take Russian athletes’ samples and swap them out in the middle of the night. He knows it is wrong, yes; but satisfying Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is far better than the alternative option.
It was a complex system of lies. Each athlete had two vials of urine: one lettered A, the other, B. These vials were made by a Swiss lock company so that once the cap of the vial was sealed on, it was nearly impossible to remove. The only viable way to take the urine from the vial was to tamper with the vial itself, which would then reveal the athletes motives. Rodchenkov would sneak into the lab at night and meet the intelligence agents at the door, handing them samples in haste. Around 2 or 3 hours later, Rodchenkov would get a sharp rasping knock on the door, and the samples would be wheeled back into the lab. It is still unknown to this day how the intelligence agents were able to open the samples without breaking the fragile glass.
It was as if the athletes had never doped in the first place. The scientists came back the following day and found clean, satisfactory results within the Russian athletes’ samples. Soon, it was evident how spectacular Russian athletes were. They swept away the competition in almost every event, racking up 13 gold medals and winning the Olympics as a whole. That night in Sochi, smiling Russian athletes stood upon the podium with a cocktail of steroids running in their veins.
This is not what the Olympics stand for. The Olympics is an exhilarating experience where the top athletes compete with prowess and motivation. The Russian athletes were evidently not doing this. They cheated and lied their way to the top. We know for a fact they robbed 33 athletes of medals that year in Sochi. There are countless more athletes who have lost a medal. It is not because they were worse than the Russians, but because they were not loading themselves up with metenolone like the Russians.
Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the doping program exposed it all in 2016. His life soon became threatened and he fled to America where he still resides under the witness protection program. Many Russian athletes have come out saying it was forced upon them, and that they have the strongest distaste towards doping as a whole. I respect Rodchenkov and the athletes who came out and exposed the doping scandal, despite their lives being on the line. They have also exposed that the program has never stopped -- and that it is likely to never stop. It has been going on since the dawn of the Cold War and will likely continue unless the Olympic committee enforces harsher restrictions against Russian athletes.
As I stated before, this is a state-led doping program, one which is encouraged unto the athletes. Imagine if something like this happened in America. Say that once football players become professional it is required by the government to secretly take a mixture of unknown chemicals that enhance their speed. It is unfair to the rest who are abiding by the rules. Doping is the coward's way out.
- Should Russian athletes be allowed to compete in major events?
- What is a better method of collecting samples from the athletes so the samples are not exploited?
- Is doping just a major problem in Russia or do you believe it is prevalent in other countries?
Sources
Desk, Explained. “Tokyo 2020: Why Russians Are Competing at the Olympics under the Name ROC.” The Indian Express, 8 Aug. 2021, www.indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-at-tokyo-olympics-why-russians-are-competing-under-the-name-roc-7421776.
Wikipedia contributors. “Doping in Russia.” Wikipedia, 23 Aug. 2021, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_in_Russia#:%7E:text=Due%20to%20widespread%20violations%20of,Olympic%20Games%20%2D%20for%20four%20years.
“The Russian Doping Scandal.” CSCE, 28 May 2021, www.csce.gov/international-impact/events/russian-doping-scandal.
“Icarus.” Netflix, uploaded by Bryan Fogel, 20 Jan. 2017, www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TDMwMEsxNMkyYPTiyUxOLCotVsjNL8tMBQB1cAi8&q=icarus+movie&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS968US968&oq=Icarus&aqs=chrome.2.0i433i512j46i433i512l2j0i433i512j0i512j0i131i433i512j0i512j0i433i512l2j0i131i433i512.2523j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&surl=1.
Replies
Interesting topic, well written and great job commenting Darbie!
I belive that the Russins should be able to compete in the Olympics, however I think that all olympic athletes should be heavily monitered. I do not know of a better method of colecting samples from the athletes. I belive that it is way more prevalent in other countries then people think, I just think it is very well hidden.
I believe the Russian athletes should not be able to compete just because of the whole scandal they were involving themsleves in. Its not fair everyone else has to work hard at their event and earn what they deserve, when you have the russians injecting steroids to make them better than the people that worked hard. I also think that if they had a third testing of doping just to make sure that it dosen't come out postive would benefit them. Yes, doping occurs a lot in Russia, but it can happen in any country Russia was just THE country that happened to get caught, so I think it can happen anywhere.
I totally agree how it isn't fair to the other athletes. This wasn't brought up much so far, so I would just like to explain some of the problems these doping athletes cause. Clean, hard-working athletes train their entire lives to get to the Olympics. Once they are there, they do incredible --but they just aren't good enough because another athlete beats them. But, they were better weren't they? The Olympics is the largest sporting event in the world, so it must be just, right? But then it comes out that the person that beat this hard-working athlete was in actually cheating, taking illict drugs. Imagine the effect this may have someone.
I personally don't think that Russian athletes should be able to compete in the Olympics or any other major sporting events because they have had to cheat in the past to win and are still doing it today. I think that they should collect samples every day and test them that day. I also think they should have a third vile to make it harder to cheat the system. Doping is a major problem all over the world, it just happened to be explotied in Russia.
I think that having a third vial would benefit. The Russian athletes have been exploiting this system for too long, and hopefully we can find a good way in the future to prevent any doping!
In my opinion not allowing Russia to compete in Olympics or any major events completely won't be that fair because a country shouldn't suffer because of what ignorant people did on that country. Yet i think that Russia should be fined for cheating, usage of illegal supplements and etc. Olympics always has been something where there was a lot of deceit so i don't genuienly think that this is the first time either Russia or whole Olympics witnessed such disaster.
I agree that a country shouldn't suffer because of the faults of the ignorant -- but the people in this situation were not ignorant of what they were doing. Vladmir Putin himself encouraged this program unto athletes. Fining Russia is a very good idea. The Olympics have always had a layer of deceit and politics behind them, but they also represent togetherness and the human race as a whole.
I dont think the Russian Athletes should be allowed to compete in major events anymore just because what they are doing in my eyes is conciderd cheating. I dont really know any other way to collect the samples, but i think that doping is a problem bc there are no other countrys doing it that we know of.
I agree with you that Russian athletes should have a temporary ban -- at least until we fix the doping-testing system as a whole. Doping is a problem not only in Russia, and even Grigory Rodchenkov admitted this. Doping happens when an athlete is so desperate to win they resort to something they can attempt to control.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next