Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
A Puff of Controversy Well, folks, the Olympic torch isn’t the only thing smoking in Paris this year. Japan’s 19-year-old gymnastics captain, Shoko Miyata, has been sent packing for lighting up and knocking back a few drinks. The Japanese Gymnastics Association (JGA) announced this shocking decision on Friday. Talk about sticking the dismount … right… Read more.
Of course, that the notoriously doped-up Russians stole the Americans’ Olympic glory was bad enough. But the International Olympic Committee and the Court of Arbitration for Sport only compounded that unfairness by making the Americans wait nearly two years to resolve this matter. After all, I figured out two years ago the resolution they have finally come. IOC neutral… Read more.
Russia state-sanctioned doping That Russia runs a state-sanctioned doping program to enhance the performance of its athletes is an open secret. I decried this phenomenon in the blog post “In Putin’s Russia Even Athletics Is a Criminal (Doping) Enterprise” on November 9, 2015. Therefore, nobody should be surprised that Kamila Valieva has the women’s figure skating competition embroiled… Read more.
The reason for the ‘Ha!’ is that everyone knows doping is as commonplace in horse racing as it is in professional cycling. In fact, I commented on this open and notorious secret just last year in “Big Doping Syndicate Behind Horse Racing Finally Exposed … and Indicted!” March 12, 2020. In fact, to put this… Read more.
__________ Christian Coleman of Team USA blew away the field (in 9.76) to win his first title in the men’s 100m. Unfortunately, no matter how many more he wins, his career will be forever tarnished by this doping scandal: Sprinter Christian Coleman cannot be the face of athletics following the controversy over his missed drugs… Read more.
I have been championing calls to ban horse racing for over a decade for all manner of reasons. Here, for example, is what I wrote in “Sadly, the Bell Tolled for Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby,” May 6, 2008: ____________________ The sport of kings? Indeed. But so is the barbarism of fox hunting. …… Read more.
I can think of no better overview of this latest development than the following: Russia dopes its athletes to gain unfair advantage in international competitions as readily as it meddles in foreign countries to undermine democratic institutions. I hope that strikes a chord. Because it informed my commentary after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) issued… Read more.
To stem more shame…? Anchoring the men’s 4x100m, he had a few meters to make up. And no doubt the young Bolt would have. But this one suddenly screamed and stumbled as he came down with his golden farewell shattered by the first injury he has experienced at a major competition. (NBC Sports, August 12,… Read more.
In a ‘revolutionary’ new proposal, European Athletics has recommended that all track and field world and European records set before 2005 should be removed from the record books. It would mean Mike Powell’s long jump world record, Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 100-meter and 200 -meter world records and Britain’s Paula Radcliffe’s marathon world record would be scrapped.… Read more.
Related commentaries: Athletes boycotting Russia… Russia hacks U.S. election for Trump… Read more.
