Russia Banned from Winter Olympics

[albionmoonlight]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/05/sport/russia-ioc-ruling-intl/index.html

[Buccaneer]

Putin must’ve used up all of his bribe money on FIFA. Good riddance.

[Brian Swartz]

Quite surprised by this.

[PilotMan]

Thanks Obama. Just one more reason why Trump and Putin can't be the bff's they want to be.

[digamma]

I put this in the Netflix thread but the documentary Icarus is worth the watch.

[hollmt]

I put this in the Netflix thread but the documentary Icarus is worth the watch.

It was good. Already recommended it to some coworkers after I told them about the story. Funny how the story/documentary actually started out (the intent) and then went batshit crazy from there.

[RainMaker]

I put this in the Netflix thread but the documentary Icarus is worth the watch.

Yup, I really enjoyed this.

[digamma]

Totally. The idea in and of itself was great, and then the twist, which is why I posted here.

[MIJB#19]

In the past weeks IOC already announced the lifetime ban of many Russians that competed at Sochi 2014. The awkward part is that the IOC has yet to inform the various international sports associations on what grounds the individual bans have been enforced, which means the subjects at hand are still competing in international events not named 'Olympic'.

It isn't a new approach, basically a copy paste of what the IAAF (Ahtletics) has done for the past year and a half.

Putin must’ve used up all of his bribe money on FIFA. Good riddance.Not quite enough apparently, FIFA has announced the Russians will be kept away from any doping tests. Of course, we also know FIFA does nothing serious about doping to begin with. We're still waiting for them to ban the Mexican national team for 2 years for banned substance violation of the entire team...

[bhlloy]

An interesting subplot here is that now the KHL is very unlikely to be releasing players for the hockey tournament either, which might be the final nail in the coffin for Olympic hockey being a major spectacle (not that the NHL ban didn’t put it on its deathbed but there still would have been some recognizable names and fringe NHLers). And of course Russia not being there robs it of one of its premier teams and probably the favorite for the gold.

Certainly great news for Bettman and his quest to replace the Olympics with something he can make a ton of money off

[JPhillips]

Nikki Haley said it is an, "open question" whether American athletes will be attending the Winter Olympics.

It wouldn't surprise me to see the admin say no, then have Trump meet with the South Koreans and or IOC and reinstate the athletes. That way Trump can claim his personal intervention made the Olympics possible.

[Toddzilla]

Watched Icarus last night - fantastic

[ISiddiqui]

Nikki Haley said it is an, "open question" whether American athletes will be attending the Winter Olympics.

They've backtracked from that:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/06/politics/nikki-haley-olympics-north-korea/index.html

[thesloppy]

I guess there's not much of a distinction there when you think about it, but I'm still kind of stunned that the Russians included their Paralympic team in their doping schemes.

[Sorinut81]

Russia won't keep shocking me. from time to time i have a feeling that they're from another planet. as strange as this sounds but i would really like to visit Russia one day to see what's so different there that they're so different from all the rest. too bad i can't right now go traveling...

[EagleFan]

An interesting subplot here is that now the KHL is very unlikely to be releasing players for the hockey tournament either, which might be the final nail in the coffin for Olympic hockey being a major spectacle (not that the NHL ban didn’t put it on its deathbed but there still would have been some recognizable names and fringe NHLers). And of course Russia not being there robs it of one of its premier teams and probably the favorite for the gold.

Certainly great news for Bettman and his quest to replace the Olympics with something he can make a ton of money off

Loved it before the NHL players were in it so I can't see how that would change now.

[PilotMan]

Watched Icarus last night - fantastic

Watched it thanks to you guys. Nothing short of phenomenal.

[Julio Riddols]

Loved Icarus, it was as good as any suspense film I have seen, but it was real.

[Toddzilla]

From SI:

BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY

THE PICK: Icarus (Netflix)

SI’s Dan Greene offered up in detail why Bryan Fogel’s doc on the vast Russian doping conspiracy deserved all the plaudits it has received. Amazing work.