{"id":5340,"date":"2022-02-16T08:24:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T13:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=5340"},"modified":"2022-02-16T08:34:28","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T13:34:28","slug":"gold-delayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2022\/02\/16\/gold-delayed\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold Delayed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Phenom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s a fifteen year-old girl.  And she\u2019s (arguably) the best figure skater in the world.  Kamila Valieva is a Russian phenom.  And \u2013 she\u2019s tested positive for three different drugs, which, used in combination,  has the effect of increasing endurance by impacting the heart muscle itself.  Sure skaters need strength.  But in a five minute performance, requiring multiple athletic jumps and turns \u2013 endurance definitely helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If she was a sixteen year-old boy who was legally prescribed an asthma inhaler by his doctor that contained a banned stimulant, they would strip him of his medal and ban him from the Games.  That\u2019s the precedent.  Ask Rick DeMont, the American \u201cphenom\u201d who won the Gold in the 400 meter freestyle in Munich in 1972.   They took his medal away, and sent him home (Daily Advertiser<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember that well \u2013 I too was a sixteen year-old swimmer, though nowhere near the class of DeMont.  But I related to doing \u201cwhat the doctor told me to do\u201d.  I did get to see an Olympic Gold Medal from Munich.  It was around the neck of the fifteen year-old girl who sat behind me in class \u2013 Deanna Deardurff<\/em>.  She won the gold and set a new world record in the 400 Medley Relay. <\/em> Deanna was required to compete as a \u201cboy\u201d on our high school team \u2013 there was no girls high school swimming at the time.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That crisis was soon eclipsed \u2013 first by the five medal performance of DeMont\u2019s teammate, Mark Spitz.  And then by the terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes that killed twelve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banned from the Games<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But the International Olympic Committee established the precedent then:  young age is not an \u201cexcuse\u201d for testing \u201cdirty\u201d.  You lose what you\u2019ve won, and you are banned from the Games.  Following a doctor\u2019s orders isn\u2019t an excuse either.  And certainly making a \u201cmistake\u201d by mixing your grandparents\u2019 drugs with your own (sounds like a likely story) even at fifteen, shouldn\u2019t get a pass.  We would spank a five year-old for that \u2013 do we expect less from a fifteen year-old?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except \u2013 for Kamila Valieva.  She\u2019s already won a Gold Medal for the Russian Olympic Committee in the team event.  Now, she\u2019s favored to win another Gold in the individual contest.  And every other athlete (and all those skaters are amazing athletes) on the ice knows, that if SHE tested positive, she would never be allowed in the building, much less on the ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Russian Problem<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The title \u201cRussian Olympic Committee\u201d exists, because Russia has a chronic athletic drug abuse problem. In 2014, even the Russian Security Services were part of cheating on drug tests at the Sochi Games. Russian athletes provided \u201cclean urine\u201d far before the Games. Then they used performance enhancing drugs. When they won Medals, the \u201cdirty sample\u201d was literally passed through a secret hole in the testing lab wall, and replaced with the \u201cclean\u201d sample.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And figure skating has had its share of scandal.  If you\u2019re old enough to remember when the judges held up cards scored 1 through 10 to score a performance, you\u2019ll probably remember the old joke:  \u201c\u2026and the scores are \u2013 9, 9.5, 9, 4 \u2013 that was the Russian judge, 9, 9.\u201d  The Russian attitude is always win, at all costs.  The only failure is in getting caught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian National team has been banned from the Olympics since 2014.  But the \u201cRussian Olympic Committee\u201d can still field contestants, just not under the Russian flag.  And here we are again:  another Russian athlete with a positive drug test, competing in the Olympic Winter Games.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfair Break<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Why does she get a \u201cbreak\u201d?  Why did the International Court of Arbitration for Sport allow her to continue in the competition?  They claim that this could be an \u201caccidental poisoning\u201d, and that the fifteen year-old shouldn\u2019t be held to the same standard as an adult.  They suggest that perhaps the adults, the coaches, should be held responsible, rather than the fifteen year-old (Sports Illustrated<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe it\u2019s because she\u2019s on the Russian team.    The American Olympic Team would have banned her from even getting to the Games.  Sha\u2019Carri Richardson never even got to the Court of Arbitration.  She tested positive for marijuana \u2013  a drug with no athletic benefit to a 100 meter sprinter.  She was banned from the US team for a month, by US authorities.  That was long enough to remove her from the Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo last summer (NYT<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or perhaps the Court is afraid that if Valieva is banned, Russia\u2019s President Putin will invade Ukraine.  That\u2019s not as far-fetched as it seems.  Putin\u2019s actions at the Ukraine border already are on the knife-edge of war, it wouldn\u2019t take much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the medal award ceremony has been postponed.  Just in case the Court changes its mind, after the Games are over.  Or Putin doesn\u2019t invade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phenom She\u2019s a fifteen year-old girl.  And she\u2019s (arguably) the best figure skater in the world.  Kamila Valieva is a Russian phenom.  And \u2013 she\u2019s tested positive for three different drugs, which, used in combination,  has the effect of increasing endurance by impacting the heart muscle itself.  Sure skaters need strength.  But in a five minute performance, requiring multiple athletic jumps … Continue reading “Gold Delayed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGold Delayed : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Russian skater gets a "pass" from the Olympic drug rules. 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