A hypodermic needle, some pills, maybe a urine sample. Those would be far more fitting images than the five coloured rings that have long served as the symbol of the Olympics. Maybe add a picture of Vladimir Putin, whose Russian regime is responsible for the worst state-sponsored doping scandal since East Germany in the 1970s and ’80s.
WADA, the World Anti-Doping Association, has produced another report showing how 1,000 Russian athletes were provided with performance-enhancing drugs, plus the plans that were put in place to help their transgressions from being discovered. More than 30 sports were involved. Earlier reports have already led to Russian athletes being stripped of their Olympic medals. Because more elaborate testing is coming, the podium results of other winter and summer Olympic Games are going to be radically altered.
Sanctions are coming. Athletes will lose their medals, but in some cases they may just be innocent guinea pigs being used by the Russian sports associations. There has to be a way to punish Russia and to punish the people in power. It’s going to hurt Russia, while this entire scandal continues doing irreparable damage to the image and the future of the Olympics themselves.