Last week, there were two things side-by-side at the top of the Sports Section of the Washington Post. The first was a report by Rick Maese and Matt Bonesteel regarding the findings in a new report on the Russian doping conspiracy. You can find that report here; I commend it to your reading.
The report summarizes the findings of a Canadian lawyer, Richard McLaren, after an investigation done at the behest of WADA – the World Anti-Doping Agency. This statement from Mr. McLaren will give you an idea of the tone and the conclusions drawn in the report.
“It is impossible to know how deep and how far back the conspiracy goes. For years, international sports competition has been unknowingly hijacked by the Russians. Coaches and athletes have been playing on an uneven field. Sports fans and spectators have been deceived. It’s time that this stops.”
I have not taken the time to find and read the original report but I am willing to believe that McLaren – on behalf of WADA – has developed evidence to support the conclusion that this whole thing was an institutional matter directed by someone or someones far beyond the level of an individual athlete or a team trainer. It appears that urine samples were “swapped out” and the “testing establishment” was duped. It should be no surprise that there are calls to ban the Russians from the Olympic Games in Korea in 2018 and for other severe sanctions.
Right next to this reporting on McLaren’s findings and report was a column by Sally Jenkins that took a different tack on this matter. She points out that the report is “more embarrassing for WADA than for Vladimir Putin’s empire.” You can find her column here; I commend it to your reading.
Sally Jenkins calls for the dismantling of WADA and replacing it with something that is independent of the IOC. [Aside: Indeed, it is difficult to put blind faith in any person or entity attached to the IOC.]
I do not know if WADA needs to be dismantled and replaced; I do know that they have been “less than fully successful” in catching athletes who may have “cheated” in various athletic competitions. In this case, the doping practices go back at least as far as 2011 and they continued to obtain through – at least – the Winter Games in 2014. McLaren’s findings here in late 2016 does not inspire great confidence in anything WADA has said or done in the last 5 years – at least – when it comes to “providing a level playing field for international athletes” …
While at least tangentially on the subject of the Olympics, I want to be sure that you know about two new sports that have been granted “provisional recognition” by the IOC. These sports will be in this provisional status for 3 years and then can apply for inclusion in the Olympic Games. These two sports are:
- Muay Thai – – and – –
- Cheerleading
Muay Thai is a martial art which – not surprisingly – originated in Thailand. Cheerleading is team gymnastics set to music. Muay Thai maintains the original Olympic focus on events that were related to war and combat. Cheerleading is not a sport.
In addition to sports that seek IOC “blessing” as something that may become Olympic events, each host city is permitted to include sports in their games that in a one-off status. The 2020 Games are scheduled in Tokyo and here are five of the one-off sports that will be included in those Games:
- Baseball/softball
- Karate
- Skateboarding
- Sport climbing
- Surfing
A while back, I commented on a win by the LA Rams where the team had not scored a TD in that win. What made that unusual in today’s NFL is that it was the second win for the Rams this season where the Rams did not score a TD. I said that I could not recall that sort of thing happening recently although it was probably prevalent in the NFL in the 30s and 40s. You should not be surprised to learn that I received an e-mail from the sports stats maven in Houston on the subject. Let me share his information with you.
“In the 1920’s, there were 77 games in which a team won without scoring a TD. There were also a load of 0-0 and 3-3 ties and some 6-6 games that no TD was scored during that period. Please note that in the 20s, the average number of games per year was less than 80.
“In the 1930’s, there were 37 such games won without scoring a TD and there were still ties, but not as many as the previous decade. Please note that in the 30s, the average number of games per year was less than 55.
“In the 1940’s, there were only 4 such games and that includes both the NFL and the four years of the AAFC.
“More recently, there were no NFL games from 2013 to 2015 in which the winning team scored fewer than 10 points, but there have been two this season [the two games won by the Rams]. LA is the first team since the 1997 Bills to win two games in one season in which it scored fewer than 10 points. Buffalo did that in Marv Levy’s final season as its head coach, with victories against Indy and Miami, each by a 9-6 score on all field goals.”
Finally, here is some potential good news – at least it is for me – from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:
“Lifting weights can lead to better brain function, according to a study at the University of Sydney.
“So maybe getting called a dumbbell isn’t such a bad thing after all.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………