BY JOHN SHAFFER The “Olympic ideals” of sportsmanship are admired by everyone but there are certain times that the rules don’t apply to everyone. At least that’s what we thought, because Russia/the former Soviet Union, Cuba, and most of the former East Block satellite countries got away with things that the countries of the free world could not. We particularly objected to the sham of “amateurism” that permitted the athletes of Communist countries to complete as amateurs, even though they were for all practical purposes employees of the state and professionals in all but name. We also objected to the rigged rules that always seemed to provide medals to East Bloc athletes at the expense of deserving Americans. We specifically recall the infamous 1972 Olympics, where the Russian basketball team won the gold medal, thanks to blatant cheating; or pole vaulter Bob Seagren’s treatment, also in 1972, that conspired to prevent a fair shot at a medal. We could go on, but the East German swim team in 1976 had to be the most outrageous example. Pumped full of performance-enhancing drugs, those swimmers shattered records and won a ton of medals. Well, speaking of drugs – the International Olympic committee may have turned a corner that one never would have suspected they ever would turn: they have banned the Russian team from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. The reason – illegal doping with performance-enhancing drugs and steroids on a massive scale, involving athletes from almost every sport. Not only that, but the Russians managed to rig the very laboratory that performed drug tests on its athletes. They tampered with urine samples – and then, unsurprisingly, gave the athletes clean reports. The truth of Russia’s corruption has long been known, but the nation was allowed to take part in the 2014 Winter and 2016 Summer Games. But at least ten Russian athletes were disqualified from the 2014 games, after they won six medals, which have been revoked. At least 17 other 2014 Olympians are under scrutiny for doping. The ban imposed for the 2018 games is the most severe in Olympic history, and it is long overdue. Now, if we can get someone to disqualify all of those drug-enhanced performances by the East German swimmers, we truly will believe that unclean competitors will not be tolerated.
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