Olympics

Weird that the top 4 male golfers are not going to Rio, yet all or most of the world's top WOMEN golfers ARE.

Very disappointed that the IOC fudged the issue of handing the Russian team an outright blanket ban from Rio, leaving it up to individual sports federations to exclude Russians. As it stands at present, do we know roughly which sports Russian competitors are currently excluded from?

IOC passed the buck again, I wish these governing bodies had the balls and actually made a decision. The situation with Russia and Rio is ridiculous, if the state backs and hides doping you ban the state and therefore all the Russian competitors.It is not fair on all I appreciate that,but only one whistleblower ( who now cannot complete) there must be others who know or knew what was going on. Maybe because I am British I cannot stand the cheating, being caught cheating and then the blatent bareface of Putin in trying to somehow claim Rio without Russian competitors will be be of a lesser quality. Mr Putin if you are able to compete on a fair playing field without the Russian cheats it improves the Olympics, all the other competitors feel they have a fair chance.

(28-07-2016 10:05 )sandals1963 Wrote:  IOC passed the buck again, I wish these governing bodies had the balls and actually made a decision. The situation with Russia and Rio is ridiculous, if the state backs and hides doping you ban the state and therefore all the Russian competitors.It is not fair on all I appreciate that,but only one whistleblower ( who now cannot complete) there must be others who know or knew what was going on. Maybe because I am British I cannot stand the cheating, being caught cheating and then the blatent bareface of Putin in trying to somehow claim Rio without Russian competitors will be be of a lesser quality. Mr Putin if you are able to compete on a fair playing field without the Russian cheats it improves the Olympics, all the other competitors feel they have a fair chance.

Russia aren't the only ones doing it and they only got caught through a whistle blower. Also the IOC set a president saying no drug cheat should go so shouldn't that include 2 times drug cheat Justin Gatlin?

I think there have been times when the IAAF & the IOC should have handled the Gatlin dugs scandal a whole heap more robustly and certainly I agree he shouldn't be competing. When will the IAAF & the IOC ensure that a life ban means life?

Maybe it is now time for the IOC to bring in permanent Olympic bans for those caught cheating and or failing drugs testing in Olympic competition. all athletes should be tested 24 hours before they compete and 24 hours after competing. But I am shocked to hear that construction work is still going in Rio before the opening ceremony!! I have always wondered whether Rio was actually a worthy host city for the Olympics. Yes, they hosted the 2014 World Cup well, but I think it does seem the athletes are far from happy with their accommodation. I have read that the Aussie team have rejected theirs.

(12-07-2016 18:48 )babelover48 Wrote:  Weird that the top 4 male golfers are not going to Rio, yet all or most of the world's top WOMEN golfers ARE.

Not really think its more to do with not wanting to get ill because the ryder cup is not far away and there are a few top ranking events where lot of prize money on offer where as olympics hasnt any money involved

think Mcilroy bottled it because he thinks he chose wrong representing ireland instead of the UK

mcilroy thanked god when he heard about the zika virus! apparently they've lifted his his ban at Hillsborough golf club! lol.

Incredible hypocrisy from British Cycling over Lizzie Armitstead. Missing 3 out of competition drugs tests in a year should mean she is nowhere near the Olympics given the current climate, she certainly wouldn't be if she was Russian. She didn't even appeal against the first missed test until she'd missed her third. At best she is guilty of being completely unprofessional

people say that but the difference is UK cycling is not encouraging there cyclists to dope. the russians were delibrately cheating and masking the cheating on an industrial scale

The fact is if the UK doping official had actually knocked on the hotel door during the first test instead of just ringing up then the test would have been carried out and there would have been no problem

Armistead has had a load of tests in and out of competition as well

Armistead was where she said she would be for the first test & just thought she would not miss another 2 in the year. She disputed it but didn't appeal which in retrospect was a mistake. Seems the drug testing official was not given her hotel room number by the hotel and as she was asleep with her phone on silent he gave up and left. She was actually in her team hotel so why he couldn't contact an official instead I don't know as they would have had her room number. She was subsequently tested anyway the following day at the event she was at and has been tested 16 times so far this year.