The Canadian lawyer whose investigation into Russia’s state-sponsored doping program resulted in over 100 Russian athletes being barred from the 2016 Rio Olympics struck again on Friday. Richard McLaren released a 151-page report, published by the World Anti-Doping Agency, implicating 1,000 Russian athletes, participating in 30 different sports, in the Kremlin’s doping schemes.

McLaren spent months combing through emails, documents, scientific, and forensic evidence from Russian officials and athletes, and published his findings in a tirelessly thorough account. He found guilty athletes who participated in Olympic Games and world championships. In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London alone, McLaren found, 15 medalists violated doping rules; ten have since been stripped of their medals.

“It is impossible to know just how deep and how far back this conspiracy goes,” McLaren said on Friday. “For years, international sports competitions have unknowingly been hijacked by the Russians.” In one of the most recent examples, McLaren documented the case of two female hockey players who participated in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Their urine samples contained male DNA.

Another technique the Russians employed in their urine tampering practices was mixing salt and coffee grains to dilute tainted samples. McLaren’s report examined 100 urine samples belonging to Russian athletes from the Sochi games. All had been tampered with, including four from gold medalists.

I want to compete in a World Champs that’s drug free and safe. Sochi,Russia is not an option. Move it @IBSFsliding
https://t.co/xIq69Lkfff

— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) December 9, 2016

In response to McLaren’s report, Russia said it is “denying the existence of any state-sponsored doping programs in sports and will continue the fight against doping from the positions of ‘zero tolerance,'” according to a statement from its sports ministry. However, the statement continued, Russia “is ready to cooperate with international organizations in improving the Russian and world antidoping program.”

Many athletes are upset about the overwhelming evidence concerning Russia’s doping program. In two months, Sochi is set to host the bobsledding and skeleton championships. American athletes have discussed boycotting the event. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said the report’s contents detailed a “fundamental attack on the integrity of sport,” in a statement.

Participating athletes “should be excluded for life from any participation from the Olympic Games in whatever capacity,” Bach continued. He said the IOC will inspect 150 urine samples from the Sochi Olympic Games that have yet to be examined.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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The head of the European Olympic Committees, Patrick Hickey from Ireland, was arrested in Rio on Wednesday for allegedly running a ticket scalping operation.

When the police knocked on his hotel room door, 71-year-old Hickey left to hide in an adjacent room. His wife reportedly told the police that he had already left for Ireland. When the police eventually found him he said he wasn’t feeling well, citing a previous heart condition, and they took him to a hospital.

Police believe that Hickey and at least nine others plotted to illegally sell tickets to the Olympics at sky-high prices. Another Irish executive was arrested in the same investigation last week, and four others are still wanted.

Rio police issue warrant to arrest head of European #IOC Patrick Hickey for scalping #Olympic tickets #Rio2016pic.twitter.com/ZbSB4up4Am

— People’s Daily,China (@PDChina) August 17, 2016

Hickey is also head of the Olympic Council of Ireland and has been a member of the International Olympic Committee board since 2012. An ambulance took him to a hospital following the arrest. His current condition is not known. IOC spokesman Mark Adams said:

The police have been here, I can confirm that, and Patrick Hickey has gone to [a] hospital. When we know some facts, when police give us some facts, we’ll let you know.

The AP reports that officials seized over 1,000 tickets that had been sold for high fees and distributed among members of the Olympic Council of Ireland. Police believe that British company THG Sports sold them. One of the executives wanted by police is the owner of THG’s parent company, Marcus Evans Group.

Police arrested another executive from Marcus Evans Group, Kevin Mallon, and his interpreter at the beginning of the Games in Rio since they had fake tickets. Even though OCI’s name was printed on the tickets, Irish officials said they had no idea why and that they didn’t know the arrested men.

Brazilian police investigator Ricardo Barbosa said at a news conference:

Today’s arrest shows that the law must be followed. Even more when we are talking about the biggest sporting event that should uphold ethics and an international spirit. We found out that the Irish Olympic Committee ended up facilitating the ticket scalping scheme.

According to the Irish Examiner, Hickey is now facing charges for facilitating ticket touting, the formation of a cartel, and ambush or illicit marketing. If he is found guilty he could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Sports, particularly the Olympic Games, have the potential to give us some awesome gifs. Remember McKayla Maroney’s not impressed face from four years ago?

Or this synchronized swimmer rising from the water in a particularly derptastic fashion?

Or Ashley Wagner’s “bullshit” gif from the most recent winter games?

Well unfortunately we won’t have access to as many awesome gif moments from this year’s Rio Olympic Games. Per the International Olympic Committee (IOC):

Internet and Mobile Platforms Notwithstanding any other applicable limitation included in these NARs, Olympic Material must not be broadcast on interactive services such as ‘news active’ or ‘sports active’ or any other related Video on Demand services, which would allow the viewer to make a viewing choice within a channel and to thereby view Olympic Material at times and programs other than when broadcast as part of a News Program as set out in Clause 1 above. Additionally, the use of Olympic Material transformed into graphic animated formats such as animated GIFs (i.e. GIFV), GFY, WebM, or short video formats such as Vines and others, is expressly prohibited.

Rules for people attending the games include:

Video or audio content taken from within Olympic venues … must only be for personal use and must not be uploaded or shared on any website, blog, social media page, photo or video-sharing sites, or other mobile application. Broadcasting images via live-streaming applications (e.g. Periscope, Meerkat) is prohibited inside Olympic venues.

This announcement shouldn’t really come as a surprise, given that the IOC hinted at strict prohibitions in May when it disclosed that only its rights holders could share Olympic content. NBC, and its international counterparts who also have the rights to Olympic footage have paid hefty prices for those rights, and the IOC understandably wants to protect them. However, it does appear that NBC is still going to be making its own gifs, so all is not lost.

But a lot of people are wondering if the prohibition on gifs will even be possible, or wise. While it’s one thing to ban media organizations from making gifs or short videos, it’s going to be a lot harder to prevent the internet as a whole from doing so. Remember that time that Beyonce wanted photos taken down from the internet?

So, all gif hope isn’t lost, but it’s doubtful we’ll have quite as many as in 2012 or 2014.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Thirty-one athletes representing 12 countries and six sports may be barred from competing in Rio de Janeiro for this summer’s Olympic Games, due to a new round of testing conducted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on doping samples from the 2008 games in Beijing. The IOC has yet to release the names of the athletes, the countries they represent, or the events they compete in.

Tuesday’s announcement from the IOC was the result of using “the very latest scientific analysis methods” on 454 total samples of athletes who competed in Beijing and were poised to compete in Rio. The IOC saves samples for ten years after they’re initially procured for retesting as new methods for identifying banned substances are developed.

In a statement, IOC president Thomas Bach assured all clean athletes that justice will be served to those who cheat:

All these measures are a powerful strike against the cheats we do not allow to win. They show once again that dopers have no place to hide… By stopping so many doped athletes from participating in Rio we are showing once more our determination to protect the integrity of the Olympic competitions, including the Rio anti-doping laboratory, so that the Olympic magic can unfold in Rio de Janeiro.

The IOC also retested 250 samples from the 2012 London games. Results of those retests will be released shorty, the IOC said.

A report released in November by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that found Russia complicit in a decades long, elaborate state-sponsored doping program, renewed efforts to clean up Olympic competition, long marred by doping scandals. (Read Law Street’s deep dive into that issue).

New details emerged last week, when Grigory Rodchenkov, director of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory, spoke with the New York Times about his country’s ornate doping schemes during the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.

Belated punishment for Olympic athletes years after they won a medal is hardly new to Beijing. Following a retest of 100 samples from the 2004 Athens games, four athletes were stripped of their medals due to anabolic steroid use.

As the specters of the Zika virus and Brazil’s scandal-plagued government loom over the Rio games in August, Tuesday’s results and those soon to be released from the London games are sure to shake things up even further.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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By now you’ve probably heard about the bigots, dog killers, and unfinished hotels in the Russian Olympic city of Sochi. The Games have just begun and yet problems with hosting the Olympics have been reported for several months. Most folks here in the good ol’ U S of A are probably asking themselves, “Why would the International Olympic Committee (IOC) select such a functional, idyllic location for the 2014 Winter Games?” Well, the answer is more complicated than you think! Just kidding, it’s mostly about money.

In 2007, the IOC descended upon Guatemala to determine which city would be awarded the 2014 Winter Olympics. The winner (if you want to call it that, since most people believe it’s  a drain on the economy) would have to indicate that their city could handle the financial impact, security measures, and transportation demands that come with hosting the Olympics. (Read the IOC Commission Report here.) But to even woo the IOC to your city, a country must spend millions.

The IOC narrowed its 2014 finalists to Salzburg, Austria; Pyeongchang, South Korea; and Sochi, Russia. During the bidding stage, Salzburg and Pyeongchang were both found to be more accommodating than Sochi, but Sochi’s bidding budget of $27.5 million easily eclipsed those of Salzburg and Pyeonghang ($7.8 million and $21 million, respectively). Russia’s bid team hit its crescendo when a full-size skating rink was flown into Guatemala — in the world’s largest airplane — to wow the IOC judges. In addition to the bid budget, the Russian Federation guaranteed any “eventual shortfall would be covered by the Federal government.” Considering the Olympics are usually over budget, and Russia’s GDP is much greater than that of South Korea or Austria, this was no small promise. This guarantee, coupled with Russia’s bidding blitz, cemented Sochi as the host of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

But considering the Olympics have gotten off to a rough start in Sochi, will the IOC change its valuation system?  After all, tales of Sochi’s spending have traveled the globe; the Games have cost Russia roughly $51 billion. Other countries have also voiced their criticism over the current system of bidding.  Austrian officials say their country has effectively been phased out of future bids due to the country’s  concentrated yet relatively low level of wealth.  But the IOC is unlikely to change. IOC President Thomas Bach has stood by the Sochi Games and the IOC’s choice.  He’s also standing by Rio De Janeiro as the selection for the 2016 summer games, despite the myriad of issues facing those Olympics. The games will go on, and the money will continue to flow.

—

Andrew Blancato (@BigDogBlancato) holds a J.D. from New York Law School, and is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. When he’s not writing, he is either clerking at a trial court in Connecticut, or obsessing over Boston sports.

Featured image courtesy of [Atos via Flickr]

Andrew Blancato

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