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I'm old enough to remember the Rosa Ruiz cheating scandal from the Boston Marathon. 40 years ago everyone kind of laughed it off as a one-off thing that could n

I'm old enough to remember the Rosa Ruiz cheating scandal from the Boston Marathon. 40 years ago everyone kind of laughed it off as a one-off thing that could never happen again because of cameras along the route and better safeguards, but it's emerged that lots of people cheat at the Boston Marathon (https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2019/04/22/boston-marathon-cheaters-china/ https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2019/04/22/boston-marath...) and others (https://www.marathoninvestigation.com https://www.marathoninvestigation.com). For me, cycling lost its luster not only after Lance Armstrong was caught and spent years lying to the American public about it, but also after repeat stories like this one (https://www.velonews.com/news/road/cbs-news-12-riders-used-motorized-bikes-in-the-2015-tour/ https://www.velonews.com/news/road/cbs-news-12-riders-used-m...) involving the Tour de France and other high-profile races. The Olympics holds up the ideal of a level playing field for wholesome young athletes from all over the world to compete, but I think everyone knows that it's not a level playing field, even if the strategies used by certain countries to win are perfectly legal such as expensive training programs and granting citizenship to people who have tenuous connections to the new countries they represent (https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2014/02/14/switching-nationalities-olympics https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2014/02/14/switching-nationa...): ... There are several stories of athletes switching countries, including South Korean speedskater Ahn Hyun-soo who became a Russian citizen and changed his name to Viktor Ahn to join the Russian speedskating team, after falling out with the South Korean skating federation. It's a shame, because I want to believe athletes and their coaches are honest people who strive for the highest possible standards, but it's hard not to become jaded after decades of pervasive instances of unfair advantages, corner-cutting, and outright cheating.

user5994461 6y ago
>>> The Olympics holds up the ideal of a level playing field for wholesome young athletes The Olympics is first and foremost a political event. Sports come second. It hurts to realize but that's a fact of life. The next thing that's hurting might be to realize that many athletes are likely to be missing because of logistics/visa/costs issues.

user5994461 6y ago

>>> The Olympics holds up the ideal of a level playing field for wholesome young athletes The Olympics is first and foremost a political event. Sports come second. It hurts to realize but that's a fact of life. The next thing that's hurting might be to realize that many athletes are likely to be missing because of logistics/visa/costs issues.