True Left

The IOC, the International Testing Agency, the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Court of Arbitration for Sport – it’s an impressive sounding collection of organizations meant to suggest transparency and accountability. In reality it’s an alphabet soup of incestuousness, designed with the sole purpose of providing cover for one another.

In Valieva’s case, it has worked to diabolic perfection.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency blames WADA’s lab. WADA blames RUSADA. And CAS. CAS blames WADA. The IOC, and Bach, blame CAS. All they have to do is continue pointing the finger at each other for another three days and they’ll have successfully kicked the can so far down the road that it’s no longer in sight and everyone will forget about it.

“We went to court. We did not want (her) to participate and we lost the court case,” Bach said, giving the verbal equivalent of a shrug. “We have to respect the rule of law because if we are not respecting it, if we are abandoning the rule of law, there is no international sports anymore. So we had to accept this.”
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“It is surprising and of serious concern to WADA that a CAS panel would see fit to depart from the clear terms of the (Anti-Doping) Code, which was subject to three consultation phases involving all anti-doping stakeholders, including athletes, over a period of two years before being unanimously adopted in November 2019,” WADA huffed in a response Friday to the release of the full CAS decision, which allowed Valieva to compete in Beijing despite a positive drug test Dec. 25.

“This sets a dangerous precedent, which WADA hopes and expects will be corrected by future CAS Panels.”

Yeah? And just who will make that happen? The system was constructed to give everyone plausible deniability, and the IOC has stacked the various “independent organizations” with its own people to ensure no one gets out of line.
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The current president of CAS is John Coates, the longtime Australian IOC member who is currently serving his second term as vice president and who, oh by the way, just happens to chair the IOC’s Legal Affairs Commission.

That’s right. If an athlete breaks an IOC rule, it’s Legal Affairs that hands down the punishment – which the athlete would then appeal to CAS.

Nope, no conflict of interest there!

As if that’s not slimy enough, Coates also had a big hand in devising the new process for selecting host cities, first used to choose the host for the 2032 Games. Which went to Brisbane … Australia.

Kamila Valieva got a hero's welcome on her return to Russia, thanked fans on Instagram, then celebrated being home by going to a pop concert

Olympics officials have overruled the French government’s ban on Muslims wearing hijab headscarves during the 2024 Paris Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) declared on Friday that athletes participating in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were free to wear a headscarf known as a hijab in the athletes’ village, just days after France’s sports minister banned it for the host country’s athletes.

"For the Olympic Village, the IOC rules apply," an IOC spokesperson said. "There are no restrictions on wearing the hijab or any other religious or cultural attire."

"When it comes to competitions, the regulations set by the relevant International Federation (IF) apply," the IOC spokesperson said.

United Nations rights office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado rebuked the French government for the ban on hijab.

"No one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear or not wear," Hurtado told reporters in Geneva.