Russian players banned?

A ban would suck for the badminton players, who I assume were not included in the doping schemes, both because doping is not that effective in badminton, and because badminton has fewer medal chances than other sports.

But what other ways are there to punish a concerted effort to conceal doping, which included the national anti-doping agency?

I would hope that a compromise can be found, allowing Russian badminton players to compete internationally. Maybe the exclusion could just affect the Olympics? Or Russian badminton players could compete under some kind of independent banner during the ban.

 

Sucks for those guys and gals. But what can you do? Rules have to be enforced.

 

This is not an easy topic, but I'd like to read other's opinions on it, so I'm happy to take some time and write down my own.

The way it looks to me, there is no way of telling if and how athletes did use doping. There seems to be quite a lot of evidence for the doping schemes, but for me at this time, there's no way of telling his much and how hard that evidence is.
Still, I do not see a way to not punish Russia for that in the most strict way, like this ban. If there's athletes that can be excluded due to not being in those databases/having had enough independent tests/whatever other reason, they should get a chance to compete. That's where it gets tricky. At least in my mind it has shifted from "the Russian athletes are assumed to be innocent until proven guilty" to "the athletes have to provide evidence that they're innocent". Is that the right way to approach this? Probably not. Can I think of a better way? Not at this moment.
Does the complete anti doping system has to be reviewed/rebuild? That's a thought that has come up so many times that I think yes.

I'd be very interested in the result of research like this in other countries. How many doping schemes would show up? How many substances have been developed that WADA doesn't even know about? Are there ways of doping they do not or cannot test for?

 

A very interesting thing is the usage of Xenon. You can just prove the intake of Xenon for up to 24 hours. Xenon built a 160% higher concentration of EPO in the blood and can work for days to weeks. The question is did russia manipulate the concentration of EPO which is a result of Xenon? Could it be a false flag indicator for EPO?

I agree with @speCulatius that the whole doping system need to be rebuild. Also the Olympic games need a reform. I also need to say that every country needs a protection for the sportsman and a plan to give them the security to not do doping. A financial support for sportsman after the career or during injuries is IMO something which can keep sportsman away from doping. There are sports which don't make you rich. You represent your country, burn your younger life until you can't catch up or get injured and get dropped. You are not a professional soccer player who make millions even injured on the bench. IMO a big problem for many kind of sports, which leads to much pressure. So they train harder, get injured more often, and don't get any new sucessful career after the sports. I can understand why they do doping.

IMO there must be a rebuilt process in many departments to keep athletes away from doping. My impression is that doping occure more often in sports that are niche sports and don't make anyone very rich.

I think that testing schemes don't make it better. Just look at the Research chemical department with hundreds of new drugs per year. You can consume legal without any punishment or risking to loose your driving license. I think that a more tolerant system for the saver drugs could be a solution as well. The doping system will loose the whacky race against the labs, which create newer and more dangerous drugs. A more tolerant system would also protect the sportsman.

I disagree on the arguments that some sports don't benefit much from doping. Just take a look at the list. More oxygen in the blood, less fatigue, better sleep, better regeneration, less inflammation, more focuse, less nervous, building muscles (a very important thing for woman and areas which are very hard to train and to build muscles) are important for any kind of sports in different amounts.