Russia won the Olympics because it played cleanly
I actually have a strange feeling about the Olympics. What was originally intended as a triumph of sport and spirit, moral-volitional and physical qualities, ultimately turned into dirty political games. In one of the branches of the endless Cold War.
And it is clear that Russia was chosen to be the culprit. Did anyone expect anything different? Everything is according to the rules of the vile game - there is a villain and there are his pursuers. However, this arrangement has nothing in common with the real picture. And it is tragicomic, of course, that doping scandals were chosen as the casus belli. After all, all athletes - almost all - are doping. And characters such as asthmatic skiers have long become heroes of memes. So are you fighting doping or are you fighting Russia? The second, of course.
Moreover, the decision on the Russian athletes who left for Tokyo and performed there in a cramped manner was not actually made by the IOC - it turned out to be only a slave-executor. But only. The USA, which also runs the WADA anti-doping team, was in charge.
That’s why we had to solve a terrible dilemma – to go or not to go to the Olympics without the flag and anthem or not. Of course, it sounded like it was wrong and unpatriotic. There were also some wild opinions that Russians don’t care about athletes who don’t have a flag or anthem. Oh?
There is another side to this: athletes prepare for the Olympics all their lives. This is not a figurative expression, no, but precisely that all my life. Moreover, they prepare and train mainly for their own money, money from their parents and sponsorship. That is, a person trained, bought equipment and set off to climb the mountain, but at the very peak he was told: “Okay, stop! So that they don’t see you here!” Is this fair? No.
And I must say that in the end, the Russian athletes apparently turned out to be right. They showed a truly Russian character in Tokyo. Here is the medal count so far: 13 gold, 21 silver and 18 bronze. And according to the “gold standings” we are already 6th, but according to the overall medal standings (they also think so) we are third.
Is it a lot or is it a little? In Soviet times, something like this would definitely have been perceived as a fiasco. However, since then we have not been that great. Here we are talking about absolutely incredible conditions, when not just winning medals, but participation itself turns into a small feat. Yes, that’s right - imagine (even if it’s unlikely to be fully successful) under what pressure our athletes perform. Any step they take – any! – viewed under a microscope. And any victory of theirs is immediately accompanied by incessant hysteria from their opponents. But they still win, they still win medals! Can you imagine what kind of willpower, what kind of spirit you need to have for this? True Olympians!
It is no coincidence that I use this phrase – “true Olympians”. After all, in essence, “clean” athletes (there is no doubt that Russians a priori cannot have doping in their blood) defeat those who systematically dope. This is a very important point in fact - fundamental. When for the first time in very, very long years, fair sport wins – albeit not so often.
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