• FuglyDuck
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    61 year ago

    they’re not allowed to compete for Russia, they’re competing under “Russian Olympic Committee Athletes”- ROC athletes don’t earn medals for Russian, and they’re not allowed to use the russian flag or anthem for any ceremonies (The Flag parade thing at the start, and for medals, IIRC)

    It’s basically a farce. Ostensibly, the decision was made to allow the athletes to still compete and not be punished for something that the… ROC… and russian government… did. But… it’s still basically the same Committee that sponored the doping program in the first place.

    The reality is, though. the IOC is kowtowed to the Russians because nobody really wants to host the Olympics anymore. Except for people that want to use the games for some global reputation laundering. (see… bejing games. sochii games… Qatar’s World Cup,) building big venues capable of hosting the olympics in particular is ridiculously expensive, and the IOC doesn’t really want to do the games in not-new-facilities. Leading to the problem of costs for the hosting nation being ridiculous, and the local cities not really benefiting all that much in comparison. (the stadiums and security for the games are freaking obscene. Tourism doesn’t compensate.)