{"id":187790,"date":"2026-02-21T18:34:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T18:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/187790\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T18:34:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T18:34:18","slug":"the-olympics-has-a-russia-problem-heading-toward-2028-summer-games-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/187790\/","title":{"rendered":"The Olympics has a Russia problem heading toward 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

LIVIGNO, Italy \u2014 As the Winter Olympics head toward the finish line, the IOC has once again walked right into a Russia problem.<\/p>\n

Just as it appeared that the Olympic movement was getting ready to soft launch Russia\u2019s return in the upcoming Paralympic Games \u2014 prompting the Ukrainians to say they\u2019ll boycott the March 6 Opening Ceremony<\/a> \u2014 the continuation of a war about to reach its fourth anniversary isn\u2019t the only issue getting dropped on the IOC\u2019s doorstep.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s also the cheating.<\/p>\n

Again.<\/p>\n

The New York Times broke a story Friday<\/a> suggesting that a whistleblower told the World Anti-Doping Agency they had first-hand knowledge that Veronika Loginova, the head of Russia\u2019s current antidoping program, was directly involved in the state-sponsored doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. That scandal resulted in a slew of disqualifications, lifetime bans and Russian athletes being unable to compete under their own flag through the 2022 Beijing Olympics.<\/p>\n

Though that ban expired, Russia was barred from the 2024 Summer Games in Paris and the Milan Cortina Games<\/a> for violating the Olympic charter as a result of invading a neighboring country.<\/p>\n

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Of course, Russian athletes have been competing in the Olympics all along \u2014 209 of them four years ago in Beijing under the \u201cRussian Olympic Committee\u201d banner (as if that fooled anybody), 15 of them in Paris as \u201cIndividual Neutral Athletes\u201d (mostly in tennis, cycling and canoeing) and 13 of them here under the same neutral flag.<\/p>\n

\"MILAN,<\/p>\n

Adeliia Petrosian is among the Russian athletes at the 2026 Olympics competing as an “Individual Neutral Athlete.” (Photo by Tim Clayton\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(Tim Clayton via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s now widespread suspicion the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will mark Russia\u2019s full-fledged return, even as the war in Ukraine continues with little evidence it\u2019s coming to an end anytime soon.<\/p>\n

At a news conference Friday to essentially wrap up the Games, IOC president Kirsty Coventry sidestepped multiple questions on the Russia issue, saying the International Paralympic Committee was a completely separate organization and the IOC had no role in the decision to allow six Russians and four Belarusians to compete in the upcoming Paralympics under their national flags.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor right now, we\u2019re focusing on the last three days of Milano Cortina,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The most interesting moment, though, was a question that caught Coventry completely off-guard. When Juliet Macur, who reported the Times piece on the supposed WADA whistleblower, asked Coventry if it was a concern for the IOC as Russia is being welcomed back into the Olympic fold, it practically stopped Coventry in her tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at my team and maybe someone needs to be dismissed because I\u2019m not aware of that,\u201d Coventry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t heard it,\u201d IOC spokesman Mark Adams interjected.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I would be interested to find out more about it,\u201d Coventry said. \u201cSo if you could share it directly with me because that would be very important information and knowledge. If it\u2019s on the New York Times, I\u2019m looking at my team to be like, \u2018What happened guys?\u2019 But nope, I\u2019m not aware of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"20<\/p>\n

Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, speaks to media representatives before the conclusion of the Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026. (Peter Kneffel\/picture alliance via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(picture alliance via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The moment was so stunning that whatever cynicism you want to project onto Coventry and the IOC\u2019s dealings with Russia generally \u2014 which would be much deserved, by the way \u2014 this one either caught her genuinely off-guard or she\u2019s the world\u2019s greatest actress.<\/p>\n

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And if there\u2019s any legs to this story, it comes back to a point we can\u2019t repeat often enough: When it comes to Russia, the IOC never learns.<\/p>\n

Now, it must be noted that nothing\u2019s been proven. Though WADA acknowledged the existence of a generic and serious whistleblower tip to the Times, that\u2019s really all we know. The Times couldn\u2019t independently verify the specific claims about Loginova, and it\u2019s unclear whether WADA is really investigating the matter or even wants to.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just say WADA\u2019s credibility with American antidoping authorities on these matters hasn\u2019t exactly been rock-solid since 23 Chinese swimmers were cleared after testing positive for a banned heart medication at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n

But given Russia\u2019s habitual doping issues going back to the 1980s\u00a0 \u2014 no country has had more athletes test positive at the Olympics \u2014 would it really be a huge surprise if the country\u2019s current antidoping chief was in fact one of the architects of a widespread, systematic coverup of positive tests in 2014?<\/p>\n

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Though Loginova denied it to the Times \u2014 \u201cI had no potential involvement in the antidoping laboratory\u2019s operations, much less influence the collection of doping samples and their subsequent testing,\u201d she reportedly wrote in an e-mail \u2014 the IOC better get to the bottom of it.<\/p>\n

Because at some point, hopefully before 2028, the war in Ukraine will end. And if Russia makes a full-fledged return in Los Angeles, it would not only make a mockery of the IOC but also the United States if they have been allowed to just run the same playbook that has earned them their horrific reputation for cheating.<\/p>\n

Then again, maybe none of these stakeholders really care.<\/p>\n

WADA and the IOC have always treated Russia with a light touch, levying punishments only when the evidence is overwhelming \u2014 and even then taking the cowardly way out. (Sorry, but allowing Russia to compete under \u201cROC\u201d in 2022 was a joke given how flagrant the cheating was in Sochi. Even the state security apparatus was involved in the coverup.)<\/p>\n

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Also, as much as Coventry can say there\u2019s a barrier between the IOC and the Paralympic committee, does anyone really believe they\u2019d bring Russia (and Belarus) back into the fold next month without the IOC\u2019s blessing?<\/p>\n

Fat chance.<\/p>\n

This smells like a trial balloon. And now, just as it\u2019s about to be released, here comes another accusation of malfeasance, another test for the IOC to see whether it\u2019s serious about conducting a clean Olympics in Los Angeles or play the fool for Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

After all, that\u2019s what the organization does best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIVIGNO, Italy \u2014 As the Winter Olympics head toward the finish line, the IOC has once again walked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[88304,43481,12167,88303,48,52,51,47,50,49,68009,27469,88305,88307,88302,88306,88301,42022],"class_list":{"0":"post-187790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-2022-beijing-olympics","9":"tag-2028-summer-olympics","10":"tag-getty-images","11":"tag-kirsty-coventry","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-news","18":"tag-paralympic-games","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-russian-athletes","21":"tag-russian-olympic-committee","22":"tag-sochi-olympics","23":"tag-tim-clayton","24":"tag-veronika-loginova","25":"tag-winter-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}