Russia Banned from 2016 Paralympics

[bing101]

http://abc7.com/news/court-keeps-russia-barred-from-rio-paralympics/1480999/


Doping allegations at play here. Also I don't think this will be enforced for long.

[Max Rockatansky]

Would have been more amusing if they were doping for the special Olympics....The Ringer but "In Soviet Russia" style. 

[english si]

It's a shame that Russia didn't offer a massive bribe to match the shortfall in funding. Then again a strong line against doping, when the Olympics have been somewhat lax to the Russians, might help raise the profile of what is an equally excellent sports competition alongside (and NBC can have a big bunch of sob stories for their reality TV show they do instead of sports coverage of Games - quite why it merely got a daily highlights program on NBC beats me*) the Olympics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vntiFzq-L-g
^^ How can this sort of thing not get a decent level of sponsorship and ticket sales? And Brazil came 7th (OK, their 21 golds was 10 behind 6th placed USA) in 2012, so should do even better at home.

With 2012 runners-up Russia out of 2016, Team GB's likely repeat of their Olympic second place will feel a bit more hollow. Actually if China has waned and has as bad a Paralympics as Olympics (though they dominated the 2012 medals table with more medals (231) than second-place Russia (102) and third-place GB (120) together, and only a few fewer (95) golds than Russia (36), GB (34) and fourth-placed Ukraine (32) together), then maybe an improving GB (as the greatest sporting legacy of 2012 is that we now love the paralympics with a passion and participation in such sports has skyrocketed) will top the table. That's probably too much to ask though...

*Now, OK, the UK is the exception, and obviously we've got tons of people who went and watched it in the flesh (often as they couldn't get Olympic tickets, but none of them were disappointed about that after the event) but other than it being on commercial (but non-profit) Channel 4 and has a different lineup of presenters it's pretty much the same level and quality of coverage as the Olympics. If funding troubles continue, then just hold it in London every 4 years, though that won't help with spreading the word about how good it is.

[Sean Lawson]

A break system, I just read article about Putin that plagiarized his doctoral thesis. I mean, is there is something you have to be aware if you are competing is the honesty on your skills