OpEd: Olympic Champion Backs IOC Russia Sanctions

(ATR) Olympic champion Donna de Varona remembers doping scandals of another era and the politics behind them.

A two-time Olympian (1960 and 1964) with two swimming golds, she left sport after the Olympics to become a broadcaster. She led the organizing committee of the 1999 Women’s World Cup in the U.S. and is recipient of many awards. She is president of DAMAR Productions, a marketing, consulting and events advisory company.

It is a time of reckoning!

We have been here before. History continues to repeat itself. Have we forgotten when the East German women swimmers came out of nowhere to dominate the 1976 Montreal Olympic swimming events, winning 11 of 13 gold medals after not winning even one in Munich four years earlier?

Only after the Berlin Wall came crashing down and Stasi record-keeping revealed what was suspected all along--that East Germany had condoned, supported, and funded systematic doping of women athletes--did the sporting world come out of denial and begin to act responsibly in setting up drug testing programs and procedures.

In 1976, doping cheated clean athletes out of their place in history. Doping also robbed the East German women swimmers of their health and dignity. Doping stole opportunities for athletes in their post-Olympic careers and medals that to this day have not been taken back and re-awarded to clean athletes.

Anyone who doubts what happened in Russia during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games should watch the documentary "Icarus," now available on Netflix.

A tremendous amount of time, money, careful review and legal advice has consumed those who have come forth with a decision to ban Russia from the upcoming Pyeongchang Olympics. It is a carefully thought-out decision by experienced sports leaders.

IOC President Bach is a lawyer and an Olympic gold medalist whose reputation is on the line with this decision. A decision that has been a long time in coming. In 1980, when Bach had retired from his sport of fencing, the United States led a boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics. The Soviets reciprocated four years later in Los Angeles, convincing more than a dozen other countries to stay home, thereby denying two generations of athletes their opportunity to compete.

From my perspective as a two-time Olympian and also gold medalist, the last thing any one of us wants to happen is to deny athletes the right to participate in sports—and also the right to compete under the flag of their countries.

In 1981, during the Olympic Congress in Baden Baden, Germany, I worked with athletes still hurting from the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games—where 65 countries did not compete. All of us, including a young Thomas Bach, strongly objected to the intervention of politics in sports.

During that same Olympic Congress, Thomas Bach spoke out against the use of performance enhancing drugs and, along with his athlete colleagues, petitioned the IOC not only to punish those who cheat but more important, to levy sanctions on those in power who exploit athletes for personal, political, and/or financial gain.

All of us were aware that in certain countries athletes were and are prey to those in power. Yes, athletes can be punished; but if those around them are not sanctioned and severely reprimanded, the cycle of cheating will continue.

Therefore, Bach and the IOC have walked a fair and fine line in allowing Russian athletes who can prove they have not cheated to compete in the upcoming Winter Olympics. To its credit, the IOC has banned Russia and its sports officials who were responsible for drug testing during the Sochi Olympics from officially taking part in the 2018 Games.

By taking away positions of power, a clear message has been sent to the sporting community. Let’s hope that this is a precedent that will protect athletes from those in power who exploit them and will also insure that in the future athletes will compete on an even playing field.

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