The USA vs China Rivalry Has Never Been More Back After IOC Tells America To Just Stop Caring About The Chinese Doping Their Faces Off
NPR -- In a shocking move on Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee moved to crush U.S. inquiries into a Chinese sports doping scandal, by threatening to reject Salt Lake City's bid to host the Winter Games in 2034.
In a series of fierce statements coordinated by IOC President Thomas Bach, top IOC committee members blasted U.S. officials for opening probes into handling of the China case by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
One of the best parts about the Olympics is being able to hate other countries without being considered "xenophobic". It's just some good ol' fashioned patriotism to despise everywhere else that ain't the US of A.
There's been a solid rivalry between USA and China over the past 20 years, both in athletics and in real world politics. There's always been that looming threat of China, but I feel like it's died off over the past year or so. Maybe because so much of the news is consumed by Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Gaza. But it just doesn't seem like we talk nearly as much about China these days. Maybe I'm off base here and just not as tuned in, but I think I'm right.
Either way, the Olympics are always better when you have legitimate rivalries fueling the fire. USA and Jamaica have a rivalry in track that is based purely on performance. USA and Russia have a rivalry which goes back to the Cold War. And now the USA vs China rivalry is starting to heat back up after the IOC wants to act like a big swingin' dick here and threaten USA by revoking the 2034 Winter Olympics from Salt Lake City unless we stop looking into the Chinese doping their faces off.
In an unprecedented move, the IOC demanded that officials in Utah — along with U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) — sign a contract affirming "respect" for the authority of WADA in exchange for Wednesday's agreement to hold the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City…But many American athletes say they don't trust WADA's procedures and want probes to continue.
…The China scandal involves 23 swimmers who tested positive for banned performance enhancing substances on at least two occasions prior to the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021. WADA officials have acknowledged keeping the test results secret until they were revealed by journalists this spring. Eleven of those athletes are expected to compete again in Paris.
Here's the deal--China got caught with a shit ton of their athletes doping ahead of the 2021 Games. The Chinese claimed that it was because the samples got contaminated. It's like when you got caught with booze as a kid and telling your parents that you have no idea how it got in your bag. Anybody with half a brain can see right through that. But the World Anti-Doping Agency took China's word for it because clearly there's no such thing as corruption when it comes to the International Olympic Committee. Surely there's never been a case of bribery making certain wheels turns when it comes to the Olympics.
The IOC can't afford to piss off China. They're already skating on thin ice but now allowing Russia to compete under their own flag. So if there's a way to sweep a Chinese doping scandal under the rug, they're going to do it. But that's not how shit rolls in America. We're not going to just let that slide. So Congress and the Department of Justice had to step in here and do a little probing of our own. To which the IOC says, "we are so sure that there's no wrongdoing going on here that we aren't going to even let you look into it, and if you continue to look into it then we're going to take your hosting privileges away in 2034". You know, something that someone with absolutely nothing to hide would say.
So here we are today. The start of the 2024 Olympic Games. Who knows how many athletes have those sweet, sweet performance-enhancing drugs coursing through their veins as these games are about to get underway. All we know is that something is clearly afoot here, and it's up to the United States of America to just continue to do what we do best--crush the rest of the world in athletic competition regardless of whether they are cheating or not.
USA! USA! USA!