When the world’s top antidoping authority announced this week that Russia would be banned from global sports for four years for continuing violations of its rules, it trumpeted the sanctions as suitably severe. That opinion was not universal. To some athletes and antidoping officials, the punishments put forth by the World Anti-Doping Agency appeared overly accommodating and, in certain cases, altogether maddening. So now, after years of being at least mildly polite in their critiques of the organization that held Russia’s athletic future in its hands, a few of them are no longer holding back. “Especially when they have the power to do so.”

Source: International New York Times December 11, 2019 02:26 UTC