Former Olympians Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir condemn the decision to allow Russian skater...

[demmiblue]

Former Olympians Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir condemn the decision to allow Russian skater Kamila Valieva to compete following a failed drug test.

“This is a slap in the face to the Olympic Games, to our sport, and to every athlete that’s ever competed at the Olympics clean.”

Link to tweet

[LisaL]

1. There is no "irreversible harm" to other athletes.

She is allowed to compete because she does have a right to due process, such as having sample B tested (which hasn't even happened yet).
Her sample was collected in December. Laboratory in Sweden was supposed to have had the testing done within 20 days. But it took a lot longer. So that deprived her of a chance to appeal in time or have sample B tested.
But it sounds to me like she might not be allowed to keep her medal if doping is proven.

[iemanja]

22. the irreparable harm to the other athletes

is they are skating clean, in competition against someone on performance enhancing drugs. She used performance enhancing drugs. Period. It violates the terms of her agreement to participate in the games and in all competitive athletic endeavors.

There is also irreversible harm to skating and the Olympics more broadly. SINCE the process is rigged, there can be no legitimate medal ceremony, and the effects will be felt well into the future. A rigged sport is a dead sport. And of course it's the Russians. They cheat at everything.

[LisaL]

24. And if her sample B comes back clean?

There is such a thing as false positive. She has a right to have sample B tested. And she has a right to be present for the testing. And the general statement that "Russians cheat on everything" are pretty racist. Of course it's okey to post this about Russians, but not about other groups, for whatever reasons.

[iemanja]

29. You don't think the Russians ran it repeatedly?

Of course they did.

FYI, Russians aren't a race. It's a statement of fact. They cheated throughout the Soviet period through drug programs that they continued through the Xochi games. Now they are back at it again.

[LisaL]

33. What are you talking about?

Russians didn't test the samples. Samples are in Sweden. How could Russians have "ran it" repeatedly? They don't have any access to the samples.

[iemanja]

34. Okay

But the fact is she's drugged, and to worry more about her due process than the fairness of the games is fucked up. It's to hold her above all the other athletes who compete fairly.

[LisaL]

36. What if the test was false positive?

And why shouldn't one worry about fairness to an athlete?

[iemanja]

38. You don't care if it's a false positive

which it isn't. You made clear below that drug scandals make the Olympics more exciting to you.

She was caught. End of story. It's not like eating poppy seeds makes that heart medication suddenly appear in the athlete's body. Your claim is bullshit.

[LisaL]

42. Scandal making it more exciting has nothing to do with me.

It causes more people to watch. I was going to watch regardless, I don't need a scandal.

[iemanja]

44. You're the one who made the claim

no one else here.

[LisaL]

46. I didn't claim it made it more exciting for me.

My point was, scandals usually result in higher ratings.

[ProfessorGAC]

57. Racist????

That seems an illogical word choice.

[maxsolomon]

61. Can you be racist against Slavs?

Prejudiced against the Rus might make more sense, as they're a subset of Slavs.

Let's keep our bigotry sorted!

[ProfessorGAC]

62. Pushing Back On Bigotry Angle Too

I get your point, but extending my thought based on your reply.
My suspicions on Russian cheating in major athletic competition have no root in prejudice or bigotry.
The data on institutional cheating by that government, & prior regimes, is well documented.
So, I'm pushing back on that poster's very notion that it requires "racism", bigotry or prejudice to strongly suspect cheating by any Russian sports federation.
Their prior endeavors in that regard are well established.

[maxsolomon]

63. Mos def.

They have a long-established precedent, as does the IOC of going easy on them.

Stop rewarding bad behavior.

[Lucinda]

52. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[Irish_Dem]

2. It's also disgusting for the world to encourage Russia to drug child athletes.

Children are the targets because they don't get banned.

[LisaL]

3. That could be easily dealt with.

Raise the age at which one can compete at Olympics to 16. Problem solved.

[Horse with no Name]

10. They would just lie

https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/03/11/thousands-of-chinese-athletes-caught-lying-about-their-age/

[iemanja]

32. The solution is to enforce drug prohibitions

[SheltieLover]

4. Yup!

[Irish_Dem]

9. Hi Sheltie

I love your heart collection.

[SheltieLover]

13. Hi Irish!

Thx! Yours is lovely as well!

Happy VD!

[Irish_Dem]

14. You too. Happy Valentine's Day!

[SheltieLover]

16. Awesome!!!

[Jirel]

5. Then the US should be banned from Olympic competition.

It’s disgusting for the world to encourage the US to allow team doctors to rape young girls.

The drug testing nonsense does not protect young athletes. It’s an international game to knock out each others’ athletes when their own stand a poorer chance of winning. Most of the drugs that many top athletes are knocked out on - such as Sudafed - are safe and common. Valieva’s extreme athletic skill, fitness, and artistry are not the products of a common and safe anti-angina medication. It’s ludicrous for the world to lose its mind over the false scandal of Valieva, while glamorizing the crippling of Kerri Strug in a far more horrific example of completely legal abuse of young athletes.

[LisaL]

6. Young males as well, not just young females.

Tara Lipinksi's coach was accused of sexual assault by a male skater.

"Adam Schmidt, 36, a former skating student of suspended Olympic coach Richard Callaghan, alleged that he suffered “numerous sexual assaults” by the well-known coach when he trained with him as a teenager in the years after U.S. Figure Skating ignored or dismissed other allegations of sexual abuse against Callaghan, now 74, who coached Tara Lipinski to an Olympic gold medal in 1998."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/01/14/us-figure-skating-pay-1-45-million-settle-sexual-abuse-claims/4163606001/

[RobinA]

15. When Has An American

Olympic athlete flunked a drug test and been allowed to continue competing? Both the Nasser situation and that of Kerri Strug are disgusting, but not equivalent at all to doping. And I'm not saying doping is worse, it's just different and therefore requires different fixes.

[LisaL]

18. In some of those cases, it was only figured out years later that the athlete was doping.

In which case the medals were revoked.
The same can happen with Kamila, I suppose. Although being a minor under 16, the rules are different and she might have not been banned even if test came back positive before the Olympics. She certainly would have had a right to an appeal, and having sample B tested. Because the lab took so long to test, that didn't happen yet. But it doesn't mean Kamila will get to keep her medals.

[sarisataka]

30. Is rape in any way shape or form

Even arguably athletically performance enhancing?

Since the answer is "WHAT THE FUCK? NO!!!" the comparison of athletes taking performance enhancing drugs to rare victims is disgusting.

I don't have a word to describe the suggestion that rape victims should be further traumatized by being banned from competition.

[LisaL]

35. Not performance enhancing.

But one of the argument was that the country which abuses its under aged athletes shouldn't be allowed to compete, or its encouraging abuse.

[sarisataka]

41. There is a difference between

Abusing the athletes to enhance their performance versus abusing them because a person is a pedophile.

Despite what was posted, the abusing of US athletes was not "completely legal". People have been punished in the US for the abuse, although not all who turned a blind eye. I do not recall at any point the sexual abuse was "encouraged".

Russia OTH sponsors the abuse at the government level.

If you can't see the night and day difference I am sad for you.

[LisaL]

45. As far as I can tell, a lot of people knew but ignored it.

NT

[sarisataka]

50. Which has zero to do

with an athlete from a country "banned" from the Olympics test positive for the drug that the "banned" country's doping program was using.

[iemanja]

48. So you would punish rape victims

by not allowing them to compete?

How does being raped enhance their performance?

Sudafed was not found in her body. It was a heart medication that was part of the Russian state-sponsored doping program that caused Russia, but not its athletes, to be banned from the games.

[iemanja]

23. that girl knows what she puts in her body

and if the rules were being followed, she would be banned.

[LisaL]

26. If the rules were actually followed, her name wouldn't even be released.

She is under 16, thus a "protected minor."

[Irish_Dem]

27. I'm not excusing her or her parents in the least.

The kids and the parents know exactly what is going on and allow it to happen.

Parents in many societies allow the abuse of their children for large sums of money.
Happens here in the US.

This girl needs to be banned on the spot.
Mostly to tell Russia to stop doping kids.

[LisaL]

31. If her coach doesn't like the parent being around a skater, she

bans that parent from being around the skater.
I wouldn't assume parents know anything about this.

[More_Cowbell]

53. Right. It's like gangs using kids to commit crimes

The Russians cheat every Olympics, they dope every Olympics, this isn't new for them.

[Irish_Dem]

55. Yep, mobster action. Of course, the Russians have been cheating for decades

at the Olympics. Nothing new.

But their doping program is now huge, successful and targets children.

[patphil]

7. My wife and I no longer watch the Olympics.

Back when we were young, several decades ago, we used to enjoy watching the athletes perform, but now it's morphed into just another big business sporting event.

Too many professionals, too many scandals, too much manipulation of the athletes.

[LisaL]

11. Scandal only makes it more exciting.

Remember Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding? That got a lot of people interested in figure skating.

[iemanja]

37. When it comes to drugging, it destroys its credibility

There is nothing exciting about doped up athletes. The Russians have been doing it for decades, and this drug in the skater's system is one of the very ones the Russians used in their state-sponsored doping program. That's why they aren't allowed to display their flag at the Olympics.

Not everyone gets their kicks out of seeing athletes cheat. The great majority of the athletes want to know that they are competing on an equal field. And most spectators feel the same. If the contest is about who dopes up the most, it's not a competition. It's a farce.

[LisaL]

40. Do you remember an attack on Nancy Kerrigan?

Tonya was still allowed to compete in the Olympics as I recall. Could that have encouraged other athletes to try and eliminate the competition by whatever means necessary?

[iemanja]

43. She was banned for life

and had her World Championship medals stripped from her.

[LisaL]

47. After the Olympics.

She was allowed to compete.
Was that a good idea? Why did US allow her to compete at the Olympics?

[iemanja]

49. Your point speaks to the corruption of the Olympics

the World Skating Association knew better.

[Mike Nelson]

8. Agree...

... the Russians aren't even allowed in as Russia! The entire team should be sent packing!

[RobinA]

25. It's Hard to be Fair

in these situations of competing interests. I'm tempted to agree with send'em home. They're already sort of in trouble due for doping and here they are doing it again. Buh bye! Maybe an onerous result will make them think twice, it's obvious a mere sanction hasn't.
But that is so unfair to uninvolved athletes. On the other hand, maybe it will take something draconian to some innocent parties to get some momentum against this issue. Of course, that may not work in the Russian system. It does harbor some dyed in the wool cheaters, apparently.

[BlueIdaho]

12. The IOC never met a rule

They weren’t willing to break to help the Russians. She cheated her way to the top and other athletes suffer. If she wins, there should be an asterisk by her name in all the record books. * Cheater.

[GoCubsGo]

17. Here's the whole segment.

It's well worth the time it takes to listen to it

On edit, just click on the "Watch on YouTube" link. Sorry. I didn't realize it was going to be one of those "owner disabled" videos when I hit the post button.

[LisaL]

19. She has a right to an appeal. She has a right to have sample B tested.

She is allowed to compete since none of that can happen before the competition.
It doesn't even mean she will get to keep her medals.

[luvtheGWN]

56. Apparently, because of her situation, there will be

no medal presentation if she wins, which means that the silver and bronze medallists don't get one either.

Stinks to high heaven, and why the IOC bends over backwards to the Russians is beyond me.

[iemanja]

20. The drug in her system

is one the Russian state used regularly in its state-sponsored doping program--the one that got them kicked out of the Olympics as a nation.
Now they keep pulling the same shit, and people defend it because the athlete is 15. I'm with Tara and Johnny on this one.

[obamanut2012]

28. me too

[superpatriotman]

39. I endorse an all-drug Olymics as seen on SNL:

Much more entertaining.

[Hekate]

51. The coach is notorious for abusing/doping and then discarding rising young stars. Please read

They have no career when Eteri Tutberidze is done with them — a string of medals, yes. But also permanent injuries. They are children, when they begin training with this coach, and as such have little to say about whatever “vitamins and supplements” are given to them.

My husband is a real fan of figure skating. Before I met him I never watched Olympics on purpose at all — it’s not just that I am not athletic, it’s that I have not one pleasant memory of my required physical education classes. But thanks to hubby, I have for decades delighted in watching figure skating with him.

Anyway, he read the linked article and was shocked. Given the nature of the discussion in this thread, I thought I’d share it with you.

Excerpt
Russian athletes came into this Olympics already on thin ice, forced to compete under a neutral flag as a punishment for the state-sponsored doping coverup of the 2014 Olympics and subsequent persistent doping violations. The Russian doctor who accompanied the team to Beijing, Philip Shvetsky, was previously banned for doping violations by his own federation from 2007 to 2010.

The controversy has also fed long-standing concerns about Tutberidze, Valieva's coach, whose training methods have been widely criticized for leaving her very young skaters injured and with shortened careers.
And
For years, members of the skating community have lamented what's known as the "Eteri expiration date" — when, at around age 17, injury or diminishing results bring the careers of Tutberidze's athletes to an abrupt end. Competitors have long voiced concerns that Tutberidze treats her athletes as "disposable."

"Eteri was smart in her approach: she was first to find a method to teach quad jumps to girls, and the method works, but only until age 17," Benoit Richaud, the leading choreographer among quad-less competitors, told Insider. "What are skaters supposed to do then?"


https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/winter-olympics/could-doping-spell-the-end-for-russian-skating-prodigy-kamila-valieva/ar-AATFGzN?ocid=entnewsntp

[ashredux]

54. Ok boys and girls...it's open season for illegal drug use...do as you like....

If she is OK to compete…then there is no ban anymore…..

[Dr. Strange]

58. Giddy-up, time to repost this!

[ashredux]

59. LOL 😂.....Perfect

[Hassler]

60. I'm with Sha'Carri Richardson.