Observers say it was the Kremlin’s desire for victory that fuelled the cheating that spectacularly backfired, with the country losing its top ranking in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics after being stripped of 11 medals for doping. An explosive 2016 report by the World Anti-Doping Agency detailing the “state-dictated” system to hide drug test failures said it was put in place after a dismal showing at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Russia’s state television and radio holding company VGTRK has already said it would not broadcast the Winter Olympics in South Korea if Russian athletes are not allowed to compete in it. “There are doubts that Russian sport and Russian athletes have the right to a fair trial today,” he told AFP. “Professional sport in my mind is now closely associated with political games, fraud, mudslinging, lies and other nastiness,” he wrote.

Source: The Express Tribune December 04, 2017 07:07 UTC