Russia bringing home gold medals but not as 'Russia'

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 02 Aug 2021 by Alex Teddy

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Due to multiple doping violations Russia is not allowed to compete at the Tokyo Summer Olympics under its own name, national anthem or flag. Instead Russian athletes are competing under the name of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). Russian athletes have already won 50 medals, 12 of which are gold medals.There is never an official winner of the Olympics. Is it better to have the most medals of all classes or to have the most golds? Is a gold medal worth twice as much as a silver medal or only one and a half times as much? By any metric, Russia is among the top five nations.There is no doubt that the Russian government takes international sport extremely seriously. Hosting the Winter Olympics at Sochi in 2014 and then the Football World Cup in 2018 were major coups. During the Cold War the USSR regularly won the most Olympic medals. It was one of the few areas where the Soviets could beat the Americans. A strong performance at the Olympics will be a major boost to the government's popularity. This will improve the chances of United Russia in the September 2021 parliamentary elections. Since 2015 Russia has been mired in allegations of a massive state-backed doping program. It was decided by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Court for Arbitration in Sport in 2020 that a 2-year ban would be imposed on Russia in all international athletic competitions. Many athletes complained that the 2-year ban is pathetically weak. To make Russia desist from all doping, the penalty must be so severe that Russia calculates that doping is not worth it. Some called for a ban of several years on all Russian athletes, including clean ones. Moscow has insisted that it is innocent ...