A Russian athlete sporting an Olympic medal from the 2012 London Olympics makes the cover of The National Sport on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 to illustrate the first part into our series on doping.
Osman Samiuddin writes that the International Olympic Committee passing the buck on sanctioning Russia amounts to a slap on the wrist to the worldwide doping problem.
That decision has hardly brought the closure many felt was needed – the decision of each federation, to allow and bar Russian athletes, will garner precisely the kind of headlines the IOC does not want in the build-up to Rio.
But it is one in a series of decisive moments in what has been a long-running saga that has carried unmistakable and uncomfortable echoes of the infamous East German doping regime that so tainted the Games between 1968 and 1988.
See also:
• Boycotts and bans: A look back on the countries who pulled out previously
• Rio 2016: Making the medals – 'nothing can match the sensitivities of hand-design'
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