this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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Ukrainian fencer Olha Kharlan was awarded a place in the 2024 Paris Olympics by the IOC on Friday after she was disqualified at the world championships for refusing to shake the hand of her Russian opponent.

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[–] [email protected] 110 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Good, it’s the right thing to do. Russians shouldn’t even be allowed anywhere near international athletics until Putin is arrested and standing trial for war crimes at The Hague.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also, everything else aside, not until they stop doping all their fucking athletes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

The idea is the majority of their athletes are proven to be clean. There are definitely a decent number who got caught, and more scrutiny should be on Russia athletes than any other (Though all should be fully tested), but I believe it exposed only a subset of the Russian team was caught. 70 percent of the Russians were allowed to compete under the Olympic Flag.

Do I think IOC caught everyone who was doping? Of course not. Do I think every Russian was doping? I find that equally hard to believe.

Then again the fact it was only a four year ban for a state sponsored scheme? WTF.. but it just show IOC is still just one of the worst governing bodies in sports.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The idea is actually that nearly every single one of their athletes are doping. It really is that bad, and they shouldn't be allowed to compete under any flag.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The idea is actually that nearly every single one of their athletes are doping

If you had proof of that, I'd suggest you publish it. Not just someone saying that, but actual verifiable proof of it.

I'm sure some people who were doping (remember many were forced to under their doping programs) weren't caught, but the big thing is there's limited proof to the size of it.

Then again, do you honestly 100 percent believe every other country's athletes are clean? There's many ways to "beat" the test, but experts guess it could be between 10-40 percent of the athletes who competed in 2020 might have been cheating with performance enhancing drugs... that's bad, but worse, the results can be so delayed they come a decade later due to new drugs, and new tests to detect it.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If I were a professional athlete I would feel in the right to refuse to shake the hand of an athlete coming from a country proven to have a state-sponsored doping program significant enough to warrant that country's flag being banned from the Olympics long before this war.

Clearly this was about the war, but let's not pretend sportsmanship was intact before this handshake debacle came to be.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

There's actually pretty famous fencing cheating scandal that happened during 1976 Olympics. The soviet athlete was caught using electronic device to score victory.

The athlete was from modern day Ukraine BTW and IIRC he was allowed to compete in other events afterwards. He achieved very solid results even without cheating. So it wasn't something that he really needed to do in order to win, it's just the soviet apparatus wasn't taking any risks as sports are major propaganda outlets for them. Stakes are just too high for them not to cheat. The system is simply corrupt by design. Modern day russia just continues doing the same.

It's almost immoral to let russians compete even from the point of russian athletes as they are effectively forced to dope and cheat.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"reinstated"... I mean her win exists, but she still was kicked out of the tournament. She'll get her place, but I would bet hard money on the fact she would have preferred to stay in the tournament and compete for real.

This is IOC saving face, something they have to do far too frequently.

It sounds like the IFE is also making the right move to remove the handshake. I won't say all Russians (under the Olympic flag) have to be banned. Though this pro-war piece of shit is make a hell of an effort for me to change my mind on that. But forced sportsmanship needs to stop being a thing, because then it's not sportsmanship, when it's a rule, it's just a requirement of what you have to do.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

I competed in a tiny lil Olympic sport no one outside of the shooting sports has ever heard of (double trap). Wasn't nearly good enough to attend international competition, but the competitor pool was small and I knew plenty who did.

The IOC and the Olympics are nothing more than a scam. I respect the athletes dedication but after seeing the IOC's scumfuckery up close I have 0 interest in the Olympics.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't think I'd want to shake the hand of someone whose people are illegally pillaging and destroying my homeland either. I'd sooner rather spit on it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago