WADA panel recommends neutral status for Russia at Tokyo Olympics

There should be no mention of "Russia" anywhere at the Olympics. None.

There is a systematic problem with Russian sports and cheating. Some time away from international competition would be good for the athletes, coaches, sports committees and Russian politicians.

in a damning admission, WADA said the Russians were tampering with the data as late as January 2019 - days before they handed over the data that had originally been due on Dec. 31, 2018.

Among the alterations, WADA says, was the planting of evidence in an attempt to implicate the lab's former director, Grigory Rodchenkov. The planted evidence claimed Rodchenkov, who blew the whistle on the Russian doping plot, did so as part of a scheme to extort money from athletes

When the Olympics are on, someone should make a shadow scoreboard with the Russians removed. That’s the scoreboard that we should acknowledge.

The IOC makes enough money to afford a WADA lab of its own, totally secure from tampering with specimens. The simplicity of that solution should be obvious to all concerned.

And, yes, I think there should be no Russian flag at the next three Olympics, and that their athletes (who would have to be proved 'clean') should be able to participate. If clean Russian athletes win medals, they'd be good examples to everyone, even their cheating comrades.

Russia is a rogue state and should be dealt with as such

And, yes, I think there should be no Russian flag at the next three Olympics, and that their athletes (who would have to be proved 'clean') should be able to participate. If clean Russian athletes win medals, they'd be good examples to everyone, even their cheating comrades.

I would tend to agree. But we are talking about Russia here, things aren't the same in Russia as they are in Canada. In Russia, Olympic athletes are not independents training and competing their way to the Olympics, they are state sponsored and trained - and doped. This is why Russia is in this position in the first place. The reason this is an issue, is because they are doing this even when their athletes are competing as OAR:

The proposal follows a lengthy investigation into lab data handed over by Russia in January. Giving the data to WADA was part of a deal to lift a suspension of the Russian anti-doping agency, and the data was supposed to be used to expose past cover-ups of drug use by Russian athletes.

But in a damning admission, WADA said the Russians were tampering with the data as late as January 2019 - days before they handed over the data that had originally been due on Dec. 31, 2018.

The Russians have continued to engage in this behavior even after not being allowed to compete as Russia in the 2018 Olympics. So how can we take their athletes at face value in the next Olympics? I want to - the Olympics are supposed to be a place where we come together as humanity and compete on a fair and equal stage. But the Russians have spit in the faces of everyone else by running a state-sponsored doping program. Not individual athletes making bad decisions, but rather athletes being doped by their country, with all efforts going into ensuring that doping is not detected by WADA.

None of what I speak is conjecture - this is why Russia is under these restrictions. This is established fact, found through official investigation, and determined through official judgement.

Anyone who would like to know more should watch the documentary Icarus (Netflix) which goes in depth into Grigory Rodchenkov, the man that the Russians were trying to defame in the tampered data, which this very article is about.