The news media and the general public love a good scandal involving athletes using anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). It is even better when it involves the perfect villain. The report of the independent investigation commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has given them exactly what they wanted.
Allegations of rampant corruption and state-sponsored doping by Russia give newspapers the perfect narrative. Russia plays the role of the big bad guys (from athletes to coaches to government officials) who are involved in evil (supporting steroid use all of its athletes).
The narrative allows many Westerners, particularly Americans, to share a certain amount of nostalgia for the Cold War era of international sports competition. It was always an “us vs. them” and “good vs. evil” mentality that made people look forward to the Olympic Games and the races between the Americans and the athletes of East Germany and the Soviet Union. It didn’t get any better than the fictional characters of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) duking it out on the big screen.
With the political tensions rising between America, Western Europe and its allies versus Russia over the Russian annexation of Crimea and Putin’s support of pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, the stage is set for the drama to carry over into the sporting world.
WADA wants to kick Russia out of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. And Sebastian Coe, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), has given his support to such an action.
Unfortunately, the Russian doping scandal threatens to overshadow what could likely be a much more significant story. State-sponsored doping is a big deal. But it is sort of expected. Doping is rampant in all sports. Everyone uses steroids. And everyone around the world is trying to get away with it.
A related and interconnected corruption scandal at the IAAF could very well be a much more important story than the Russian doping scandal. It turns out that top IAAF officials were actively extorting large amounts of cash payments from Russian athletes, coaches and officials. And the corruption went all the way to the top of athletics federation.
Former IAAF President Lamine Diack has been accused of receiving over one million euros ($1.1 million) in pay offs from athletes and their representatives according to France’s national financial prosecutor Eliane Houlette. Diack was arrested and charged with suspicion of corruption and aggravated money laundering.
The IAAF corruption scandal is a big deal for many reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that Diack was first elected to the IAAF Council almost 40 years ago. He was the IAAF Senior Vice President from 1991 to 1999 and IAAF President from 1999 to the present. This means Diack and associates’ recent extortion attempts could merely represent the tip of the iceberg of corruption at IAAF.
In addition, the man currently in charge of IAAF, President Sebastian Coe, is a long-time member of the IAAF who stood by and supported Diack for the past decade. Either Coe was willfully ignorant of the rampant corruption or he turned a blind eye to it. Whatever the case may be, Coe doesn’t seem like he is qualified to stop doping and corruption in sports and athletics.
As you can see, the IAAF scandal is serious. But when it comes to a good sensationalistic narrative like big bad Russia giving steroids to 99% of its athletes versus a bunch of old men corruptly controlling and manipulating an international sports federation for the purpose of enriching themselves, steroids will usually capture the public’s imagination.