After the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt that the Russian government ran the biggest criminal doping program in the history of international sport, demeaning every notion of what athletic competition stands for, Russian athletes led by a Russian flag will still march at the Olympic opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5.
By any reasonable measure of justice and fairness, Russia should be banned from the Games, as WADA and several national Olympic committees and Olympic athletes demanded. While doping is not limited to Russian athletes, the idea that a government would harness its scientists, athletes, secret services and bureaucrats to cheat on a scale surpassing even East Germany’s infamous Cold War program demands an unequivocal condemnation.