The Olympics are coming! The Russians - maybe not !
The Russian Athletics (Track and Field) team is implicated in a state sponsored doping program unheard of since the days of the East German sports machine of the 1970's and 1980's. In fact, it was possible that
ALL Russian sports federations, not just Athletics, may be banned from the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is an ongoing story involving the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti Doping Agency, the International Amateur Athletic Association, the Center for Arbitration in Sport and the Russian Ministry of Sport. So far
Russian Track Field athletes are out! Other Russian sports teams have been given a reprieve.
Doping in sport is a continuing story! It is news, but it is not a new story.
- Before Lance Armstrong finally came clean on Oprah after years of denial and litigation
- Before the Major League Baseball steroid scandal that implicated Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemons
- Before the BALCO bust (Bay Area Lab Cooperative), a 'supplement' company that supplied Performance Enhancing Drugs to Barry Bonds and led to the fall of golden sprint queen Marion Jones
- Before the 'unbelievable' performances of distance runners and swimmers of China in the 1990's.
- Before the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall when a light was shone upon a long suspected East German state sponsored Performance Enhancing Drug regime.
- Before all of that was the First Great Olympic Doping Scandal - The Rise and Fall of Ben Johnson!
Ben Johnson was the first modern era Canadian superstar in a summer Olympics marquis event. Sure, we had success in the winter sports like hockey, speed skating, and skiing. Winning the 100 meters gave you the title of
'The World's fastest Man'! From 1984 to 1988 Johnson took the track and field world on a wild ride:
- Big Ben won the world Championships in the 100 meters sprint crushing the World Record
- He put Canada on the Olympic map in a marquis event
- He defeated American arch rival, the seemingly aloof and arrogant Carl Lewis
- Ben Johnson had an outspoken and controversial coach Charlie Francis
- Lance Armstrong had Dr. Michele Ferrari as his go- to medical guru. Ben had the somewhat dubious Dr. Jamie Astaphan as his physician
- Ben won the 100 meters and crushed the field and the world record again in the 1988 Olympics
- Two days later his urine sample tested positive for the steroid stanozolol
- Medals and world records were stripped
Never before or since has a Canadian athlete had such a devastating fall from grace.
- At first Ben's handlers, Francis and Astaphan claimed sabotage.
- The Canadian government held a legal investigation known as the Dubin Inquiry.
- Charlie Francis came clean. He claimed that to compete without doping was to start a meter behind everyone else.
- Lance Armstrong had a similar argument once he was officially outed. "It's not cheating if everyone else is doing it!"
- Ben Johnson received a 2 year competition ban.
- He made a comeback. He was still fast but not world beating fast.
- Ben had a 2nd positive test for high testosterone levels.
- He became a Personal Fitness Trainer for Moamar Ghadafi's soccer playing son.
- He was also a Personal Fitness Trainer for controversial Argentinian soccer great Diego Maradona.
- Six other runners from Ben's 1988 Olympic race had past or future links to performance enhancing drugs. None were sanctioned or dragged through the mud the way Ben Johnson was.
Is there a moral to this story? Maybe it is just that if the powers that be turn a blind eye to state sanctioned doping or ignore rule breaking by those with political clout - others may try to beat the system as well.
For Marian Jones, Lance Armstrong and Big Ben, they tried to beat a fixed house but failed!
Where does this leave us now?
- The Rio Olympics could be a fresh beginning for clean and fair sports.
- They could more likely be a tipping point for the jaded sports fans of the world.
- Even more likely still, the status quo reigns and corruption is swept under the rug as the show goes on like nothing has happened.
( My blog title comes from a Canadian rap singer Maestro Fresh Wes song
'Conducting Thangs'.
I'm a Country Rock man - not a rap listener but that kind of rhyming is in
Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, William Shakespeare territory. Check it out on Youtube)
 |
Big Ben (center) in selfie at my brother-in-law's
Produce Depot grocery store in Ottawa.
He still looks very FAST !!!! |
Until Next Time
Keep Fit !!!!!
Little Bobby Strong
Links
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