In the news

True although grifters need someone to grift….

FFS, the 15 year old Russian skating wonder Kamila Valieva has been busted for doping. https://apnews.com/article/winter-olympics-figure-skating-kamila-valieva-sports-health-9002d0f02a95f3561b07c0326445fb69 She uses an angina drug which WADA says is used as a metabolism modulator (?) in endurance sports. Russian bobsledders have been busted for using it before. This is so annoying. Why have Russians at the games at all? And she's only 15....not even grown up. What will doping do to her? I bet her coaches are in on it. Their skaters win so many medals, inc Zagitova, the last wunderkind who won gold at 2018 Olympics when she was 15.

There is more to this than meets the eye I think. There is a rumour that there might be a TUE involved which might explain the confusion and the fact that the athlete is allowed to continue training. Murky as hell though!

Edit: The suggestion is that the issue might be that she had a TUE for the drug for a competition a month ago, but didn't for the Olympics and it boils down to whether this is a "hot positive" caused by taking the drug recently without the TUE or a residual positive from last month. Still stinks if true!

There's not too much to understand. Russia has a state sponsored doping program, as such athletes are only allowed to compete under the Russian Olympic Committee. In 2017 they were fully banned from competing then WADA watered it down to having to compete for no country, then allowing them to compete for the ROC and allowing Russian flags on the kit so now we're back at square 1.

Watch Icarus on netflix, its about cycling but covers a lot of this

Great doc. Well worth a watch. Bear in mind all major countries will have their own doping programs including the U.K.

Bullshit.

Do you really think a publicly funded body like UK Sport would risk running a doping program?

can uk sport afford to buy PEDs?

Honestly yes I do.

Look at the medal tally online the Uk is right at the top in the pack of countries with doping programs.

Sounds like conclusive proof.

Why have Russians at the games at all?

Markets

It's just disguised a little better, as the Small Breweries' Relief. If you want examples of how fast that makes people, look no further than @hippy (well, you can't, anyway).

only allowed to compete under the Russian Olympic Committee.

That's fucking jokes too.

How much public money is going into UK sport? How does that compare with other countries?

In cycling the UK track program is far better funded than anyone else, so it’s no surprise we’ve had a long period of success at World and Olympic level.

To assume automatically that the success is down to doping alone is just lazy thinking.

Isn’t it equally lazy thinking to simply equate level of funding with level of success?

Are Peds prohibitively expensive?

The more pertinent question might be, 'is effectively running, and keeping secret, a doping programme prohibitively expensive, and what is the risk/reward balance?'

The detectable PEDS are cheap.

UK State Sponsored Doping Program
The evidence:
...err

Who needs evidence when you have rhetorical questions

Rhetorical question inception etc

Do you?

I normally never get worked up about the doping stuff.
But when it's a 15 year old who probably has no clue what they've given her it's just sickening.

Sergei Lavrov appears to have a more charitable view of Liz Truss than I do... (I do not condone his particular simile as a put-down, obviously)

This is why all pedestrians should need a licence, insurance and a number plate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-58345196

#AmIDoingItRight?