Rio 2016: Russia's first Gold

R I O - The Russophobic Incomplete Olympics, after the international sports authorities picked and chose which Russian athletes could compete at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, giving non-Russians a better chance of getting a medal in the modalities from which (clean) Russians were excluded.

Non-Russians can be found guilty of doping and compete at the Olympic Games while Russian athletes who have never taken any illegal substances are banned arbitrarily under a blanket ban excluding them from competing. This renders the medals won by athletes competing in modalities from which the Russians were excluded meaningless and those who win in these competitions will know that they were achieved in R I O - the Russophobic Incomplete Olympics.

Nevertheless, there were 275 Russian athletes in the Russian Federation team, cheered on by the crowd here in Rio's Maracanã soccer stadium at Friday's opening ceremony. And the first to bring home a medal is the Under-60 kilogram Judo champion, Beslan Mudranov.

Born in Baksan, Kabardino-Balkaria in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on July 7, 1986, Beslan Zaudinovich Mudranov is no stranger to medal winning. Before he got his first Olympic Gold on Saturday, beating Kazakhstan's Yeldos Smetov in the Men's Lightweight Under-60 Kilogram Judo competition, he had already won 14 Gold Medals in a variety of competitions.

Rio 2016 Olympic Games - Gold Medal; European Games, Baku June 2015 - Gold; European Championship in Montpellier, 2014 - Gold; European Championship in Chelyabinsk, 2012 - Gold; IJF World Tour Masters/Grand Slam/Grand Prix - 5 Golds, 2 Silver, 6 Bronze medals; World Cups - 2 Gold, 1 Silver; Pan American Open - 2 Golds; European Cups - 1 Gold, 1 Silver; Russian Championship - 1 Gold, 1 Silver.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru 

Twitter: @TimothyBHinchey

One further question: Why is Kosovo competing as an independent federation and why aren't its athletes competing for the Republic of Serbia, of which Kosovo is a part?