I’m all for cracking down on cheats, but isn’t the principle that once you’ve done your time, that is it for that particular offence?

So why is Zakarin, for example, now out for a 2009 infraction for which, I think, he has already served a ban? Is there further suspicion on these particular individuals?

Again, I’m all for being strict, but don’t really understand this.

I’m all for lifetime bans. No sympathy for cheats, so sod hem.

And as for Gatlin in athletics

since the publishing of the McLaren Report last week. In the wake of the report, the IOC made the decision to ban the Russian Olympic Committee from bringing any athletes that had received a suspension for doping. However, it would be up to individual governing bodies to choose whether or not to follow the ruling. Zakarin’s 2009 ban for methandienone included him in that category.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/zakarin-pulled-from-flight-to-rio-olympics-at-last-minute/

Suggests it’s just the Russians

So why is Zakarin, for example, now out

They’ve basically said if you’re Russian and have been caught previously for doping, the IOC will assume that you’re continuing to dope, and it’s up to the athlete (or your governing body) to prove that you’re not, rather than the normal drug authorities trying to catch you.

Blimey….if they banned every country that had ever had a doper 😕

Yes, but not every country had/has a state sponsored doping program.

Ahh yes the rogue individual defence..

I’m all for lifetime bans. No sympathy for cheats, so sod hem.

Bit simplistic really though innit?
The cheats tend to have support and a degree of infrastructure to allow them to do it.

Focusing mainly on the athletes tends to allow those behind it slink off and start doing the same thing again, possibly armed with some useful information on evading detection for the next time…

A doped athlete is the symptom of a flawed system rather than the cause… IMO of course…

If a responsible body applies a time limited ban and it has been served, that should be an end to it… Applying an extension for the sake of assuage public opinion is patently wrong, you cannot make rules then override them because the tabloids are in a froth…

If sentencing is too lenient, they only have themselves to blame, and should maybe review their guidance… Like that will happen.

They can’t be trusted so why should they be allowed? Agree that the rest of the guilty parties should also be removed though…rider is to blame but the accomplices need to also be sorted.

If it had just been individuals and the Russian agencies were catching them, they wouldn’t be banned unless serving an actual ban. It’s more that the only way to do this is a) ban all Russian athletes (the IOC were pussies here) or b) ban people who have actually been caught doping.

Option b doesn’t mean they got all the dopers but it does mean they got anyone they know for sure has been a doper. Option a would have been better.

They can’t be trusted so why should they be allowed?

Who exactly?
Russia?
Former doping athletes?
The UCI?
The IOC?

None of the above have a flawless track record and most seem to be attempting to curry favour with the press and Internet experts who seem to keep demanding harsher and harsher punishments, regardless of whether or not a previously agreed penalty has been served in full or if a ban is actually believed to be in the interests of sport…

The IOC basically delegated the decision on Zakarin’s attendance in rio to the UCI, who in turn clearly have no faith in their own processes or decisions which have seen him back in competition since 2011. so the UCI have essentially extended a ban already served five years ago to include the 2016 Olympics…

Procrastination and Teflon shouldering from the IOC, with knee jerk, public opinion driven, over-reaction from the UCI… Doesn’t really feel like robust regulation to me…

Thanks… glad it isn’t just me that thinks it is weird. Can’t believe there won’t be a huge legal challenge to the decisions.

Doesn’t this all imply that the current anti-doping system is not fit for purpose? I mean Zakarin, for example, has presumably been tested regularly, and not all of his samples can have gone through the dodgy Russian lab? Or am I missing something?

Just hope it doesn’t mean that Simon Yates is excluded from 2020 olympics for example…

RUSADA and ARAF are in effect no longer operating WADA/IAAF withdrew support for them over six months ago, this all comes after a couple of years of investigations and reports, strange how the whole thing has come right down to the wire though. not that they should have had much to do with Zakarin outside of the Olympics., truth be told most cycling cheats don’t really need the FSB to help them out that’s what their teams are for, Russian track and field is where the focus belongs, bent regulation to the point of being written off by the rest of the world..

Zakarin has been competing in UCI sanctioned pro-cycling events for the last five years, he lives in Cyprus, one would assume has a biological passport the same as any other European based rider and has to comply with UCI and WADA testing and monitoring…

He had a rather good TDF this year, So yeah in effect the UCI are saying they don’t trust their own anti-doping measures, it’s OK for him to take part in grand tours, but not the paragon of sporting virtue that is the Olympics?