Ljungvist on AFP.com

Last week, Dark Side told you about seven Russian female track and field athletes suspended from the Russian Olympic team for doping. The International Olympic Committee’s drug chief Arne Ljungqvist today said that the seven women, who have been accused of tampering with their urine samples, appeared to be involved in a case of “systematic doping.” 

This systematic doping charge, which caries with it a potential four-year ban for the athletes, comes on the same day that cyclist Vladimir Gusev was dropped from the Russian Olympic team because of irregular testing data and race walkers Vladimir Kanaikin and Valery Borchin were dropped after testing positive for the banned drug EPO.

Exhibit A

Ljungqvist described his surprise and disappointment in finding that such “planned cheating is still going on” in Russia. Dark Side, on the other hand, has seen Rocky IV like seventeen times, so a bunch of juicing Russians doesn’t surprise us in the least.

Dark Side is both shocked and appalled, however, to learn that race walking is an actual Olympic sport. Who’s on quality control over there people? Didn’t you just announce that you were dropping baseball from the Olympic lineup in 2012? Dark Side wonders if it was down to those two. Hmm… race walking or baseball. Race walking… or baseball.

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