Russia outside the game

Sports commentator Vsevolod Soloviev: How will Russian sport survive a doping ban?

Sergey Medvedev: The future has not yet come for Russian sports. After the doping scandals of the Olympiad in Sochi, the McLaren report , the exposure of Rodchenkov, Russian sport is going through the best times: removal from the Olympiads, a ban on the execution of the national anthem, to receive major international competitions in Russia. How do athletes cope with this? What is the future of Russian sports? And what is the future of the future after quarantine, pandemia and doping scandals?

Correspondent: The Sports Arbitration Court announced the verdict on the hearings of WAD and RUSADA , which were supposed to pass in the spring, but were postponed due to pandemic. The result was the neutral status of Russian athletes for up to two years, although initially the sentence was four years. The whole story began due to the base of the Moscow laboratory: before Russia transferred the results to Wada, changes were made in them. The next two years, Russian athletes will perform without a anthem and under a neutral flag. This will affect the Olympics in Tokyo and the World Championships. Rusada was punished by $ 1.72 million, which, due to the deprivation of the agency, will pay WADA.

Russian officials, even the President of the country, are forbidden to attend major sports events. However, for sports fans, in principle, nothing has changed - sporting events will continue with Russian athletes. Moreover, the Russian side can theoretically appeal the decision of the sports arbitration court.

Russian official, even the President of the country is prohibited from attending major sports events

How did doping problems grow in Russia? How will the Ban of Russian Sports affect the World Cup 2022, the Euro and the Champions League final?

Sergey Medvedev: We are discussing all this with our guest, sports commentator Vsevolod Solovyov . How much has changed for Russian athletes now? The Olympiad is frozen, it is not clear whether Tokyo will take place. World Cups, hockey competitions are held. Where are the doping scandals now?

Vsevolod Soloviev: For many athletes from the point of view of training, training, competitions, and so on, really little has changed. For example, a Russian skier won a week ago at competitions in Italy. I talked with him, asked: "Can you compare the sensations from this race and from what was a year ago?" He says: "No, there was no way to compare emotions, because there was no anthem, there was no reward." But this time there was no anthem not because they removed the Russian team, but because the ceremonies were reduced due to the pandemic. In general, as practice shows, some athletes really experience a very strong emotional surge when they hear the anthem.

Sergey Medvedev: This is important in a symbolic sense. And what about the Olympic training cycles? As I understand it, the whole Russian (former Soviet) sports car is sharpened under the Olympiads, Olympic gold, medal tests, and suddenly this core is taken out of sports!

Vsevolod Soloviev: It all depends on how officials and functionaries from Russian sports react to this. We remember how serious talk about the Olympics in Pyeongchang about what is not, we do not need such an Olympics, we will not go in any case, prepare for Tokyo or for the 2022 Beijing. Most likely, it is important here what decision will be made directly by the functionaries. The athlete will go in any case, his main task, whatever one may say, is the desire to prove that he is the best in the world. Yes, the post -fact of emotions will not be the same, but during the race he in any case wants to become the best in the world. In many sports, Olympic gold is the top.

Sergey Medvedev: And what about the Olympics in Tokyo? Different rumors are reported. How realistic is it? Or will we be left without the Olympics for four years?

Vsevolod Soloviev: Here, Japanese functionaries express different opinions. Someone says that the Olympics will be held in any case without any conversation, because a huge amount of funds, including budget, and sponsors, and so on, have been spent. I think it depends on where the pendulum of public opinion will swing in Japan. Asian cultures are now quite attentive to the issue of pandemia, restrictions. What will be a socio-political consensus, this will be a decision.

The whole Russian sports car is sharpened for Olympiads, medal tests, and suddenly this core is taken out of sports!

Sergey Medvedev: What does the Act of Rodchenkov mean for Russia and in general for world sports? At the end of last year, the acting administration Trump adopted an act, according to which the Americans, relatively speaking, can pursue everywhere in the world of people involved in doping schemes, to apply fines up to a million dollars, to issue prison conclusions up to ten years. As I remember, Russian sports functionaries were sharply against. How much does this increase the risks?

Vsevolod Soloviev: Not only Russian functionaries were against it, even Wada expressed concern about the fact that American lawmakers are trying to advance the extraterritoriality of jurisdiction. The general mood in the world of sports, and even more so in the world of Russian officials from sports, is such that this is a strange arbitrariness of American lawmakers. This really raises questions. At the same time, American national leagues, NHL, NBA, and so on, do not fall under the same "Act of Rodchenkov".

Sergey Medvedev: Do they not follow the Code of Wada? Do they have any doping codes?

Vsevolod Soloviev: I carefully did not study the whole situation with national leagues. Nevertheless, the main task is the show, and it does not matter how it will be delivered. Naturally, there are issues of ethical nature, behavior of athletes, the same entertainment drugs are also not encouraged. Although in the 80-90s there was a period when, probably, every athlete from these leagues indulged in something. Now there are restrictions there, but at the forefront of money, a show. This has a small double standard.

Sergey Medvedev: In theory, any country can come up with its anti -doping legislation and apply it in addition to Wada. This is actually the decay of the World Anti -Doping System.

Vsevolod Soloviev: Yes, exactly. This was warned by Wada, it was also against the "Act of Rodchenkov." The Americans are not the first: in Italy there has been a criminal prosecution for doping in Italy for a long time, but this, as a rule, did not spread beyond the country. And now, according to this "Act of Rodchenkov", Americans can pursue people, even if this did not happen in the United States.

Sergey Medvedev: Say, conditional Mutko.

Vsevolod Soloviev: Theoretically, you can bring anyone to this.

Sergey Medvedev: There is a risk if a person is in the United States or has property there.

A question is the infantility of Russian athletes, in their lack of education in doping matters

Vsevolod Soloviev: In general - yes, any visit to the United States will threaten claims to those who have a stigma in a cannon or who got into the papers of Grigory Rodchenkov. It is worth noting that Rodchenkov is an ambiguous, odious figure, he was already called a “monkey with a grenade” for a long time, this is a psychologically unbalanced person. Everything that was written and told in an interview should often be divided into two, three or ten.

Sergey Medvedev: I watched Icarus , and, frankly, this film seems quite convincing to me. For all the eccentric Rodchenkov, it is still obvious that he was at the head, in the middle of the Russian doping scheme: a rather talented athlete, as they say, is a brilliant biochemist. From the report of McLaren and from Rodchenkov’s files, I have a subjective feeling that in everything said there is a very large proportion of truth.

And how much is Russian sport cleansed from doping? After all these revelations, after terrible exceptions from the Olympiads, it is recognized at the highest level that yes, there are problems, and we see: when the doping comedians come to Biathlon competitions, 30 people are massively removed from the start, they simply run away from their type.

Vsevolod Soloviev: specifically in this situation, I am not sure that here the question is exclusively in doping commissars. There was a similar case in athletics, when it was really clear that this was due to doping.

Sergey Medvedev: A year ago, a championship in athletics in Irkutsk was held. Before the very starts, they announced that doping commissars had come, and people simply did not get to the start. I remember the picture: empty treadmills, two people stand in the blocks, and six simply fled from doping committee.

Vsevolod Soloviev: As for the biathlon, everything is ambiguous there: it was the last day of the competition, before that people have already run through three races, the teams were shooting. In principle, this happens without the arrival of Doping Commissioners, because on the last day of the competition many athletes are already sitting on the train: it depends on the schedule of trains, aircraft and so on.

Sergey Medvedev: After all these stories, the doping situation improves?

Vsevolod Soloviev: The question is more likely in the infantility of Russian athletes, often in their lack of education in doping matters. It often happens that a coach or doctor tells the athlete: you sing vitamins. Although Rusada is trying to make some kind of educational programs, to explain that the athlete must indicate his whereabouts, they are constantly forgetting about this. Often our athletes are not from this world, they are used to the fact that the uncle looks after them, wipes snot, and many do not even try to delve into this system. Under federations, there is always an administrator who is mainly engaged in paperwork. People, perhaps without malicious intent, but in the end violate laws directly from Wada. Here is a complex of problems: infantility, blind faith (they listen to what the coaches, doctors, some physicists, shamans that appear during teams say) and the inability to critically comprehend the situation.

Sergey Medvedev: At the exit, the stories that we saw in Sochi and after Sochi at the highest level are still obtained: to clean up the databases of the Moscow Anti -Doping Laboratory. Unfortunately, this whole story continues and is still a spot on Russian sports.

Vsevolod Soloviev: There is still carelessness. It would seem, Maria Sharapova, a world star: how did she and her huge state of experts know that Meldonius was already prohibited?

Sergey Medvedev: The habits of Soviet sports are dying with difficulty.

Sports journalist Ivan Adamenko argues.

Get high from sports competitions, see the victories of your athletes - this is worth a lot

Ivan Adamenko: Together, count, with little blood, because the European Football Championship in the summer will be held under all attributes. Any smaller competitions, whether it be the world cups or all sorts of stages, it will be as it should be. If earlier, those athletes who had some kind of doping story behind their backs were removed from large competitions, now they will be able to take part in competitions. That is, it is small, but the victory in comparison with the fact that they initially wanted to break up to us. I think we have not yet fully recovered from Sochi: there are problems from the Russad, they can’t make a roadmap in any way, the leadership is constantly changing, then my favorite athletics has become mired in everything that was possible.

All this we are cooling, the work is still a sea. Therefore, I do not know how much Russian sports are required to cleanse himself from those Sochi years. It seems to me that the maximum of what they could do: change the leadership, put new independent people - they did. Then it makes sense to follow the map that already exists, it must somehow be completed, there are some inconsistent points. Let's see if it will be possible or not. This is like a lottery. Each time they say that “we can, everything will be fine”, but in fact everything does not work out as we wanted. Any major representative of the authorities, our Olympic Committee, cannot receive official accreditation, but, in fact, no one can forbid Putin to visit the finals of games in Tokyo. If there is an invitation of the head of state, then this is a personal bed and a bypass of all prohibitions.

I think we are already used to it. When this is not the first time you are faced with the fact that your belonging to the country is taken away, it no longer causes any strong emotions, you say: well, we can perform a hymn and a chapel or something else. Get a buzz from sports competitions, to see the victories of your athletes - this is worth a lot. If we were not completely removed, then this is cool, and we will be able to enjoy the Olympics, from the World Cup and from other major events.

Sergey Medvedev: How can the sport be able to recover after the pandemic, if, hoping, everything will return?

Vsevolod Soloviev: In my opinion, if not talking about the months, when everything was completely canceled, the sport was not particularly affected by the result. Protocols were developed on how to do it in the bubble: they turned on the sound of the stands, the broadcasts go, advertisers pay money for broadcasting, there are no big problems. Yes, there is no spectacle, there is no that atmosphere, but in general, the sport was not much affected as the industry. There are additional Erzans in the same bicycle races, races on exercise bikes were also with direct broadcasts around the world, with visualization. Basically, sport as an industry of the highest achievements is still sharpened on television, for advertisers. Not to say that the situation has somehow changed. Yes, it is difficult for the audience to get there, the audience does not have those emotions, but basically for athletes the outcome is about the same.

Sergey Medvedev: Can some new formats be introduced? Will the virtual races remain?

Vsevolod Soloviev: I think there will be virtual races in the same bicycle races, there will probably be programmatic solutions for other sports, such an analogue of e-sports, which at the same time includes the competition not only in the dexterity of hands or something else, but directly to the limits of the human body. The main thing here is that there is no technical doping. Now, in this worldwide network of virtual cycles, scandals are happening over and over again, when someone has twisted something, and now new cases of people disqualification are emerging. A person is a creature that wants to deceive somewhere, dishonestly achieve victory, even if nothing is given for it.

In the very peaks of pandemia, everyone purchased sneakers, tracking equipment, tents

Sergey Medvedev: How much sport is generally cleaned of doping, and is this purification possible? Suddenly successfully passed the cycle season in the absence of spectators, the main races were held. Is there a feeling that now athletes are traveling almost clean?

Vsevolod Soloviev: It is difficult to judge from the sofa how clean everything is.

Sergey Medvedev: There were no big scandals.

Vsevolod Soloviev: For example, in cycling in only 2020 there were 18 cases when athletes were caught on doping. For comparison, in athletics - 115.

Sergey Medvedev: Is the main one now manipulations with blood?

Vsevolod Soloviev: Rather, yes. Now it is already difficult to do, because all these passports exist for many years, all indicators are being studied, and any deviation from the norm immediately raises questions. Again, talented biochemists will better answer this question, as Rodchenkov said, who comes up with some new options in a laboratory with a microscope. Yes, there was a moment when the results of the bicycles sank, and strongly. And in 2020, the results of the same bicycles on the largest passes were close to absolute records.

Sergey Medvedev: Maybe athletes stagnated in quarantine. But is there such a thing that people turned more to individual sports, in general, to the physical side of life, began to run more, and physical education?

Vsevolod Soloviev: This is definitely so. I studied the reports of the sports industry: all the bicycles were simply completely swept away from the shelves of stores almost all over the world, everywhere their lack.

Sergey Medvedev: In the very peaks of the pandemia, everyone purchased sneakers, tracking equipment, tents and other tourism goods.

Vsevolod Soloviev: Now in the world there are not enough production capacities of existing factories in order to satisfy this increased demand at times.

Sergey Medvedev: This is an interesting trend. The pandemic unfolded us not only to his own body as a certain vessel of diseases and risks in connection with infection, but also to the fact that the body can be improved, it can be done. Sports are far from only those ristles that we see on TV screens. This is a daily run, or someone just walks on foot to his floor: this is also a sport that was caused by pandemia. Sports are much more than the Olympic Games that are unknown whether it will take place, and where Russia, as you know, is banned. Sport is the daily joy of your own body.