Galactic doped-up US stars not banned from Rio Games. We all knew it all along. We knew it when the famous Flo-Jo declared she was clean, then suddenly retired, and died aged 38. We knew it when Russian athletes who never took a banned substance in their lives were banned from Rio just because some Canadian wrote a report. The more they lie...
And so the entire Russian Paralympic team was banned from Rio because some Canadian called McClaren wrote a report for his British boss (and obviously the Americans pulling the Poodle's strings) without substantiating specific evidence against all specific athletes based on the claims of a rogue Russian official (Stepanov) who had had criminal proceedings brought against him. And who is now cringing and hiding like a coward in the USA, where else? Most of Russia's top athletes were banned from the Olympics to deprive Russia of medals for the same reasons.
Every time Russia gets anywhere near a sporting event, especially when Russia starts winning all the medals, Russia is accused of some geopolitical incident which results in its own venues being boycotted or else its competitors banned from competing overseas. They threatened to boycott Sochi but did not and the looks on their faces when Russia swept the medals boards and "owned the podium" was a foretaste of something to come.
We always had suspicions. But what about the "Oh my God I am soooooo clean" cyclist, Lance Armstrong? What about Carl Lewis, who himself admitted failing tests - three tests - before the 1988 Olympic trials? What about the "hundreds of American athletes" Lewis referred to in the same conditions, 100 of which later proved to have documented doping abuses but who were cleared to compete? What about the Canadian Ben Johnson? And what about Flo-Jo's meteoric career when she broke all records in just one year, then suddenly retired beforee doping tests could be performed, then died before she was 40?
A group of hackers called Fancy Bears claim to have hacked the records of the World Anti-Doping Agency, members of whose staff allegedly admitted in a prank telephone call to Russian investigators that the Russian ban was politically motivated. This was the agency, chaired by a Briton, whose Canadian investigator McClaren wrote the report which got clean Russian athletes banned. So much for McClaren's reputation (RASPBERRY).
And what do the Fancy Bears claim to have found? Enough evidence to have WADA mega riled, to be sure, because it has denounced the alleged hack as a criminal act and has announced it will hold an investigation. Interesting. So what do the claims substantiate? That American sports stars - Galactic sports stars such as the Williams sisters, basketball player Elene Belle Donne and that gymnast called Biles - took banned substances, beknown to WADA, but were allowed to do so and also to compete.
This, while innocent Russian athletes who never took a banned substance in their lives were banned. One weight and one measure for all?
So how does the West wriggle its way out of this one? In Libya when they were caught backing terrorist groups on their own lists of proscribed groups they said "How about when a terrorist group moves towards peace they deserve support?" Peace? By slicing the breasts off women in the street and raping girls before and after they were beheaded after being forced to watch their mother have her throat slit? One wonders what Mr. McClaren has to say about that.
Fancy Bears claim to have leaked documents which show that Venus and Serena Williams and Simone Biles took banned substances. Before anyone says "show me the documents", Biles herself has come forward and admitted that she did take banned medication, but this came under Therapeutic Use Exemptions, which allows athletes to take banned substances but still compete. So where was this investigation in McClaren's report? And scroll down to the end of this article to take a look at the documents for yourself. They are real, ladies and gentlemen.
Fancy Bears claims that it has more, a lot more, on how Olympic medals were obtained by Western athletes who were doped up to the eyeballs, while clean Russian athletes and the entire Paralympic team were banned. The message from the group is: "Wait for sensational proof of famous athletes taking doping substances any time soon."
The reaction from the International Olympic Committee? It "strongly condemns such methods which clearly aim at tarnishing the reputation of clean athletes."
So what do Fancy Bears say? "After detailed studying of the hacked Wada database we figured out that dozens of American athletes had tested positive. The Rio Olympic medalists [sic] regularly used illicit strong drugs justified by certificates of approval for therapeutic use. In other words they just got their licences for doping."
How will WADA and the IOC wriggle out of that one?
Red-faced, sweating profusely, bald heads glistening, fidgeting in their chairs, WADA says that sych attacks compromise the reaching of an understanding with Russia. In short, a threat to keep Russia locked out. OK then fine. It takes two to tango. Let us read the claims, let McClaren investigate them if he has an iota of integrity, and this time do it properly, presenting hard evidence, dates, times and facts and then let's see about who is cheating and who needs to be banned. Then let us investigate McClaren. :-)
So I say to WADA and to the IOC: "We strongly condemn such methods as those used by the lackey McClaren (after all, any Canadian will do) which clearly aim at tarnishing the reputation of clean Russian athletes and Paralympians".
The documents and evidence is available on their site and on Fancy Bears Facebook page. Knowing Facebook's policy on freedom of expression, watch how long the page lasts.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
Twitter: @TimothyBHinchey
timothy.hinchey@gmail.com
*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. A Vegan, he is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights. He is Director and Chief Editor of the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru.