I Can't Keep Quiet -- Let Me Explain

I sat down the other day and read the entire McLaren report. The entire thing, you know, the report implicating a mass state-wide doping scandal in Russia. It's a pretty remarkable thing, at some point when this story has an ending I'm sure a movie will be based off of it (or maybe an ESPN 30for30). Reading the report it just sounds like something out of Hollywood.

Furthermore, today the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced it would not exclude the Russian Olympic Team from Rio despite the suggestion from WADA (world anti-doping agency), and numerous other anti-doping organizations. Let me explain, should every single Russian athlete be banned? Probably not, but I don't have all of the details. If you are Russian, train outside of Russia for a length of time, and have a history of being tested out of competition by a non-russian anti-doping agency then you should be allowed to compete.

Again, I am no expert, I only have knowledge of the media and the McLaren report. But, if the allegations are true, which evidence and logic suggest they are, a state-sponsored doping program means that as an athlete you could have been exposed to forms of doping at a young age, it could be all you know as an elite athlete.

The allegations are so intense, so mind-boggling that a strong rash punishment is needed. It isn't as simple as going back and retesting samples. Thousand(s) of samples have been destroyed, samples switched with the presumable positive tests being poured down the drain, samples being found with multiple DNA's in them. These types of corruption do not deserve a benefit of the doubt.

Today the IOC made a decision to balance responsibility and "individual justice to which every human being and athlete is entitled to." Individual justice to several hundred Russian athletes instead of the individual justice of hundreds of thousands of individual athletes worldwide, both Olympians and Non-Olympians that have spent there athletic careers competing clean and doing things the right way.

Don't get me wrong, for the most part, I have sympathy for the Russian athletes. I really do. If your country, government, NGB (national governing-body), and organization tell you to 'take this' or 'drink that' because it will help with recovery, or help you.. You probably trust them and just do it especially if it starts at a younger age. But when they ask you to swish a PED cocktail around in your mouth and then spit it out that seems strange. Or when they test you before leaving for a competition and then decide to not send you that also seems strange.

My entire involvement in sport from the very beginning, was in search of proving I could do something. I want nothing more then to earn a medal every competition I attend, to stand on the most elusive podium in sport, as an Olympic Champion. But I could never look at that medal with an asterisk. I could never do anything to compromise my raw ability to possibly earn a medal it wouldn't be worth it. The whole concept for me is if I make an Olympic team, and I earn an Olympic medal it will be because of the hard work I put in. And if I fail to meet either of those objectives I will be able to walk away knowing I gave it the best chance I had.