For kids of today, or even those slightly for whom the war in Ukraine is their first experience of such atrocities in the world, it may come as a surprise to know that there was a time when GAA – and presumably most other sports – were put into hiatus by the world being at war. In fact, it most likely happenend twice.
While such scenarios seem unlikely this time around on a broad scale, sport in Russia, and quite possibly through no fault of their own in Ukraine, is about to be thrown into turmoil. In fact that process already appears to have begun.
Of course, in Russia’s case, they have nobody to blame but themselves. Even parking the nefarious and most likely illegal invasion of Ukraine – not to mention their annexation of Crimea – they have cast a cloud over the sporting world with what can only be described as a State sponsored and facilitated doping culture.
They obviously never got the gist of the old nugget of advice to the effect that when one is in a hole it is always best to stop digging. If you were able to measure the depth of chasm the Russians have carved out for themselves, it could be safely assumed they are halfway to Australia at this stage. Then again, the wider world would not know about their sullying of so much of the sport which takes place around the globe were it not for the dedication and fortitude of journalists like David Walsh and Paul Kimmage and the selfless bravery of athletes such as Vitaly and Yulia Stepanov who literally risked life and limb in order to co-operate with Walsh and expose what is rancid within Russian sport.
How it has taken until now for those charged with the governance of various sports around the globe to properly take the nation in question to task over their conduct is difficult to fathom. Evidently, it couldn’t have come quickly enough given that a figure skater of just 15 years old was found to have prohibited substances in samples provided at the recent Winter Olympic Games.
If a competitor as young as the individual in the aforementioned case was already indoctrinated into the endemic culture involving the use of banned substances, you wonder will there ever be an end. Whatever shards of credibility there may have been remaining in terms of oversight of sport in Russia must surely be well and truly evaporated by now.
The unfortunate thing, of course, is that hard working, genuine, honest Russian sportspeople – competitors and coaches – of which there are bound to be many – will suffer needlessly due to the scurrilous actions of crooked sports administrators and an insane megalomaniac President. Part of you would like to think if Putin is eventually got rid of, it could be the needed removal of the elephant from the room to give genuine and fair minded Russian sportspeople a chance to make headlines for the right reasons.
You might also see white blackbirds. Only time will tell.
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