On December 5, 2017, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that all Russian flags, uniforms, and anthems are banned from the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. This comes after the Russian drug scandal throughout the 2012 London Olympics and 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The issue resurfaced in the 2016 Rio Olympic games, but the IOC refused to throw Russia out of the Olympics. As a result, Russia’s Sports Minister at the time, Vitaly Mutko, received a lifetime ban from all Olympic games.

In my opinion, IOC finally made the right decision after letting Russia get away with cheating for a long time. The decision should have been made earlier, but I’m glad they finally decided to ban them.

Before this ban, the IOC had been too lenient on their punishments to Russia because they decided to continue allowing Russian Olympians to represent the country at the games instead of requiring them to enter as independent athletes. There is a possibility, however, that the IOC could lift the ban just so Russia can fly their flag in the closing ceremony.

Now we know just how much of a mess the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic games were. 11 out of the 33 medals awarded to Russia were invalidated because of the drug use. Additionally, 43 Russian athletes from Sochi received disciplinary action, as reported by the IOC. Sochi feels nothing but shame for these Russians. It was their home, and they cheated their way throughout the Olympics in an attempt to win more medals.

The more shameful thing is that in 2015, according to World Anti Doping Agency (WADA)’s report, Russia cheated in such an organized sophisticated manner; they went so far as to switch urine samples and etc. That report was confirmed as a fact by Rodchenkov, the director of the Russian Anti -Doping Agency.

Russian president Vladimir Putin described the Russian athletes’ deeds  as “absolutely staged and politically motivated.” There is plenty of evidence that suggests this was, in fact the truth. Putin’s statement directly connects with the Russian government. The Russian government probably wanted to prove how well prepared they were for this Olympic season. In addition, they likely wanted Sochi 2014 to be the most successful Olympics game they’ve ever had.

The government corrupted the sportsmanship by connecting that to politics. This incident shows a perfect example of when people use a neutral competition for their advantage in politics.

This issue will most likely impact the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Russia lost their reputation internationally from the doping scandals, so it will be interesting to see how they host the world cup.

If the IOC seems to have been soft on Russia, who systematically corrupted the Sochi Olympics, FIFA has been spineless. Mutko, who is banned from the IOC, has not had any direct consequence from the Russian Football Union until he resigned on December 12, 2017. He also resigned as the chief organizer of the World Cup.

Although FIFA’s secretary general, Fatma Samoura, reported to BBC that “there are no widespread doping incidents in Russian Football,” WADA’s McLaren was able to list 33 cases just between 2011 and 2015.

Doping is something that should never be an issue in the first place. It ruins the meaning of sportsmanship and defames the competition.

However, the fact that the Russian team cheated only leaves the impression that they cannot be trusted and will do this again. For every competition they ever compete in from now on, Russia is going to be a suspect of doping.

The Russian government has disgraced their people because, from this point onwards, people will associate Russians with doping. The real disadvantage here goes to the clean athletes of Russia. If they get an outstanding result in a competition, the media and people will be automatically suspicious towards them.

This incident will hopefully teach the world the outcome of mixing drugs and sports. The IOC should not be easygoing towards Russia. The government has to know this corrupts their athletes and isn’t worth the slander. For the future, the IOC should improve their doping test to prevent future incidents like this from occurring.