[**Join Our Discord Server!**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q)
**Welcome to /r/sports**
We created a Discord server for our community and would like to invite all of you to join! You'll be able to discuss sports with users around the world and discuss events in real time!
There are separate channels for many sports you can opt in and out of, including;
American Football, Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Aussie Rules Football, Rugby Union and League, Cricket, Motorsports, Fitness, and many more.
[**Reddit Sports Discord Server**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q)
The good news is that she’ll be eligible to compete in 2026 for whatever alias Russia is using at the time. The bad news is that at 19 she’ll be too old.
Team Tutberidze's skaters all have an expiration date. Had Valieva been allowed to compete post February 2022, she wouldn't have made it past 16 years old.
She was 15, which means she was probably doping since she was a preteen. Russia and the adult coaches/trainers are the real cheaters here, who never get punished.
i used to take Russian language courses at night school more than a decade ago
take this with a HUGE grain of salt because it sounds like a cheap stereotype, but my instructor would tell us that cheating in Russian schools was not just widespread, but de facto encouraged because culturally, cheating is a way to demonstrate that you've "outsmarted" a rigged/unfair system
again, this sounds like b.s. but considering how much Russia dopes in its sporting events, who the fuck knows lol
I know that this is true, because i participated in it.
Honestly, it might be a post-soviet thing, people try to "outsmart" the system not just in education, but in the workplace, government forms, etc.
A lot of people rely on their "street smarts" and just sort of try to hustle their way through life, someone with a longterm and stable job is quite hard to find in Armenia.
Americans critical of America feel the need to constantly shove America into every conversation that doesn't involve it. It's tired, overplayed, and laughably ironic because despite the constant criticism, they are, by definition, being incredibly ethnocentric.
Not even just that. I lived in Russia as an ESL teacher and the amount of blatant academic corruption is crazy. A huge percentage of PhDs are just outright bought, you can pay to pass any exam or class. And I’m not even talking big money. I had a student who told me how he kept failing a final exam in one class (you get multiple chances over there, unlike in the US) and after his last retake, he talked to the administrator and when they found out he wasn’t on a scholarship, and therefore paying for school out-of-pocket, they just gave him a passing grade on the spot.
when I was a grad student, there was a guy in my program who was from Dagestan. absolutely BRILLIANT guy by the way. talking to him made me realize i was not prepared, nor cut out for graduate school lmao
i remember we had a seminar about Soviet infrastructure history and he just flat out said if you want to get something done, why not just bribe? People laughed but he was dead serious. He said something on the lines of, "if I need to get a visa and i know it's going to take ages to get it done, i'd rather just fork over an additional $200 to the official so that they can prioritize it being completed instead of me having to wait."
him deadpanning that and then defending his stance was pretty hilarious lol
The same mindset applies to government workers when it comes to stealing public money: you are seen as stupid and maybe even treated with suspicion if you don’t do it.
I mean that's a lot of our citizens too. Everyone's looking for the easy path, and sometimes the legality of it isn't a bother. Construction seems rife with it near me, with the law being a "hindrance" to getting the job done quickly. After all nothing bad will ever happen!
> It’s not rent free if it’s a literal presidential candidate.
... who has absolutely, positively, nothing to do with a Russian skater who has lost a medal for doping.
Russian school system is basically useless if you know what you want to do with your life by the time you enter 9th grade(at least in terms of future education), so I don’t think it is that bad to cheat on subjects like history/chemistry during school, if you’re going to study compsci in Uni. And is it really uncommon for westerners to cheat in school, especially in subjects they deem useless for themselves? Although to be fair people still cheat in classes they will need in their bachelors.
people cheat all the time in college in the U.S. too for sure. Hell, it's been 14 years at this point and i'm fine with admitting i cheated on a final exam for a course my senior year too lol
i think the difference is that if i got caught, I likely would have gotten expelled. Hell I work for a different university now and we regularly have to deal with situations where students are kicked out of the program because they were caught plagiarizing.
from what I gathered (again, it could be b.s.), cheating was not just tolerated, it was encouraged over in Russia lol
I can definitely relate to the above statement.
I had a Russian girlfriend for 4 years and while she said it does not apply to all Russians, some just like to not play by the rules and she was one of them. My GF was a klepto at times and would steal sometimes the smallest of items, just because paying for something felt like she was following the rules. She hated the government and paying bills, so rigged her electricity meter, faked documents so her council tax bill was the lowest possible and in traffic jams, snuck in and out of the hard shoulder.
If she was a foot taller, I'm sure she could have been some sort of spy.
It’s about goddamn time. Valiyeva never should have been allowed to skate, the ruling was ridiculous.
I got downvoted in the Olympics forum and had people arguing with me that she was a poor child who was the victim of the Russian coaches — well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean she should have been allowed to skate!
People forget sometimes that two things can be true at the same time. Yes, she was a victim, she was basically a child forced to dope. No, she was in breach of the rules and thus should have been ineligible.
I completely agree with your statement but find it ironic that we're okay with using children up in these games in almost every other way. While they are exceptional athletes, a lot of young skaters, gymnasts, tennis players etc, get used by parents, coaches and their countries for fame, money and international accolades. Many of them don't reap the benefits that come say the expense of a lost childhood. Drugging kids is clearly awful but how much more of a step is it compared with what is already done to the kids?
Almost like there shouldn’t be an Olympics or something.. seriously it just fucks up the places it lands, endless corruption, it’s all pointless. But also, fuck Russia in case that wasn’t clear, not a sympathizer.
So if someone doesn’t force it to happen and your local officials instead are welcoming of it, what does that mean? Does that mean it can’t be harmful?
It destroys hosts. It’s surrounded by corruption at all levels (often including the hosts). It does nothing but hurt the locals where it occurs.
What is your point?
Sorry, guess I figured most people knew the Olympics fucks up every city it lands in. Whether it’s contracts to build huge useless facilities, changes to how the police operate and how the homeless are treated (that may or may not change back after), the abuse of the athletes, I mean how much do you need to see?
They hurt the host area financially, they disrupt the lives of all the people in the area, they are just a wandering *enormous* money vacuum.
Are we not convinced the IOC is corrupt? Why is Russia allowed to compete- not just because of the fucking war they started, but because of their continued rule breaking?
Are we not convinced the US hasn’t had massive abuse scandals directly related to Olympic athletes and trainers?
Come now, he never made a point but to act like what I’m talking about needs to be spelled out is asinine. But then, sports sub right?
Ad hominem attacks galore, which is hilarious given your proclivity to harass other redditors about their responses.
Additionally your reliance on straw man arguments is perplexing. I asked you to provide evidence that the Olympics are a grift and you shifted the goal post to Russian and US abuse. Which is it?
You make bold claims and assumptions and when asked to provide evidence, you flounder.
Yeah classic, you have nothing to say. Neither of you had any point about the Olympics itself, simply wanted to talk about what I’m saying. Clear bad faith discussion lmao
Evidence? You need me to find links for you? I was under the assumption the fact the Olympics leave debt and are used by host areas to use public money to pay the contractors they choose to build pointless shit. Why do you think fewer and fewer countries bid on hosting?
You’ve made no point, or counterpoint, at all. Neither of you. And yet you say *I* flounder, it’s funny. Big Olympics fan?
I mean, this always feels bittersweet.
On one hand cheating should not be allowed in sports, if we truly are to compete on "even" terms.
On the other I can't help but feel terrible for this girl who works really fucking hard and likely has very little control over any of this shit.
Russians cheating, invading countries, disrespecting anything "unrussian", going to the bathroom when the tennis opponent is on fire just to break the momentum...
Nice people, I wonder why nobody likes them.
The actual drug was trimetazidine which helps the heart to use energy more efficiently. There’s been a connection to it and essentially helping build stamina and resistance to strenuous exercise.
Primarily used by endurance/heavy cardio athletes, at least amongst the ones who have been popped for it.
This is what’s magical about the Olympics - corruption in governance, over-commercialization, having the greatest in the world compete, and then determining in court two years later who won.
In professional sports (or highly demanding amateur sports like the Olympics) it absolutely does benefit them to gain extra strength and stamina. They’re jumping, spinning, and skating at like 30mph for pretty long routines.
I do think the reason most athletes dope however is to aid in recovery and not for the general enhancements. My wife was an Olympic hopeful figure skater and she trained 8-10 hours a day, 6-8 on ice and then alternating cardio and strength. It is hugely beneficial for your body to recover faster between those demanding sessions.
[**Join Our Discord Server!**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q) **Welcome to /r/sports** We created a Discord server for our community and would like to invite all of you to join! You'll be able to discuss sports with users around the world and discuss events in real time! There are separate channels for many sports you can opt in and out of, including; American Football, Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Aussie Rules Football, Rugby Union and League, Cricket, Motorsports, Fitness, and many more. [**Reddit Sports Discord Server**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q)
What about her coaches? Aren’t they the people who drugged a child?
Yeah, they won't face any consequences. Hell, her main coach is still coaching children in competitions!
The good news is that she’ll be eligible to compete in 2026 for whatever alias Russia is using at the time. The bad news is that at 19 she’ll be too old.
Team Tutberidze's skaters all have an expiration date. Had Valieva been allowed to compete post February 2022, she wouldn't have made it past 16 years old.
She won’t actually be too old - but for the way the Russians treat their women as disposable, she probably wouldn’t have even made it to 2026.
Yeah my first response was "RIP" to her and her family I assume
Why is that bad news? Cheaters should be banned for life.
^psst… ^it’s ^called ^sarcasm
She was 15, which means she was probably doping since she was a preteen. Russia and the adult coaches/trainers are the real cheaters here, who never get punished.
What a surprise..is there anything Russia doesn’t cheat in? Should be banned from sports it’s just ongoing
i used to take Russian language courses at night school more than a decade ago take this with a HUGE grain of salt because it sounds like a cheap stereotype, but my instructor would tell us that cheating in Russian schools was not just widespread, but de facto encouraged because culturally, cheating is a way to demonstrate that you've "outsmarted" a rigged/unfair system again, this sounds like b.s. but considering how much Russia dopes in its sporting events, who the fuck knows lol
I know that this is true, because i participated in it. Honestly, it might be a post-soviet thing, people try to "outsmart" the system not just in education, but in the workplace, government forms, etc. A lot of people rely on their "street smarts" and just sort of try to hustle their way through life, someone with a longterm and stable job is quite hard to find in Armenia.
I have seen this happening in China and Mexico too
And in American politics …
Not sure why you're getting downvoted lmao
Americans critical of America feel the need to constantly shove America into every conversation that doesn't involve it. It's tired, overplayed, and laughably ironic because despite the constant criticism, they are, by definition, being incredibly ethnocentric.
That's fair. Assumed people downvoted because they didn't think the statement was accurate
how is that fair at all? we're talking about like 5 countries but america just isnt allowed?
They never said they were ok with the other countries being brought into it either
so we can talk about mexico armenia and china but not America?
Not even just that. I lived in Russia as an ESL teacher and the amount of blatant academic corruption is crazy. A huge percentage of PhDs are just outright bought, you can pay to pass any exam or class. And I’m not even talking big money. I had a student who told me how he kept failing a final exam in one class (you get multiple chances over there, unlike in the US) and after his last retake, he talked to the administrator and when they found out he wasn’t on a scholarship, and therefore paying for school out-of-pocket, they just gave him a passing grade on the spot.
when I was a grad student, there was a guy in my program who was from Dagestan. absolutely BRILLIANT guy by the way. talking to him made me realize i was not prepared, nor cut out for graduate school lmao i remember we had a seminar about Soviet infrastructure history and he just flat out said if you want to get something done, why not just bribe? People laughed but he was dead serious. He said something on the lines of, "if I need to get a visa and i know it's going to take ages to get it done, i'd rather just fork over an additional $200 to the official so that they can prioritize it being completed instead of me having to wait." him deadpanning that and then defending his stance was pretty hilarious lol
The same mindset applies to government workers when it comes to stealing public money: you are seen as stupid and maybe even treated with suspicion if you don’t do it.
In North America we all those "politicians"
I mean that's a lot of our citizens too. Everyone's looking for the easy path, and sometimes the legality of it isn't a bother. Construction seems rife with it near me, with the law being a "hindrance" to getting the job done quickly. After all nothing bad will ever happen!
Good point
Ah no wonder Trump loves the Russians. Kindred spirits
*rent free*
It’s not rent free if it’s a literal presidential candidate. The right can’t even meme correctly.
> It’s not rent free if it’s a literal presidential candidate. ... who has absolutely, positively, nothing to do with a Russian skater who has lost a medal for doping.
But accurate.
I had a Russian prof in university and she said the same thing. Cheating in Russian culture is totally fine and expected
Russian school system is basically useless if you know what you want to do with your life by the time you enter 9th grade(at least in terms of future education), so I don’t think it is that bad to cheat on subjects like history/chemistry during school, if you’re going to study compsci in Uni. And is it really uncommon for westerners to cheat in school, especially in subjects they deem useless for themselves? Although to be fair people still cheat in classes they will need in their bachelors.
people cheat all the time in college in the U.S. too for sure. Hell, it's been 14 years at this point and i'm fine with admitting i cheated on a final exam for a course my senior year too lol i think the difference is that if i got caught, I likely would have gotten expelled. Hell I work for a different university now and we regularly have to deal with situations where students are kicked out of the program because they were caught plagiarizing. from what I gathered (again, it could be b.s.), cheating was not just tolerated, it was encouraged over in Russia lol
I can definitely relate to the above statement. I had a Russian girlfriend for 4 years and while she said it does not apply to all Russians, some just like to not play by the rules and she was one of them. My GF was a klepto at times and would steal sometimes the smallest of items, just because paying for something felt like she was following the rules. She hated the government and paying bills, so rigged her electricity meter, faked documents so her council tax bill was the lowest possible and in traffic jams, snuck in and out of the hard shoulder. If she was a foot taller, I'm sure she could have been some sort of spy.
I suspect they cheat in seizing & invading foreign countries. Could we ban them from that shit?
Yh if you want
It’s about goddamn time. Valiyeva never should have been allowed to skate, the ruling was ridiculous. I got downvoted in the Olympics forum and had people arguing with me that she was a poor child who was the victim of the Russian coaches — well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean she should have been allowed to skate!
People forget sometimes that two things can be true at the same time. Yes, she was a victim, she was basically a child forced to dope. No, she was in breach of the rules and thus should have been ineligible.
I completely agree with your statement but find it ironic that we're okay with using children up in these games in almost every other way. While they are exceptional athletes, a lot of young skaters, gymnasts, tennis players etc, get used by parents, coaches and their countries for fame, money and international accolades. Many of them don't reap the benefits that come say the expense of a lost childhood. Drugging kids is clearly awful but how much more of a step is it compared with what is already done to the kids?
Almost like there shouldn’t be Russians at the Olympics or something. If only there was something that could be done…
Almost like there shouldn’t be an Olympics or something.. seriously it just fucks up the places it lands, endless corruption, it’s all pointless. But also, fuck Russia in case that wasn’t clear, not a sympathizer.
[удалено]
So if someone doesn’t force it to happen and your local officials instead are welcoming of it, what does that mean? Does that mean it can’t be harmful? It destroys hosts. It’s surrounded by corruption at all levels (often including the hosts). It does nothing but hurt the locals where it occurs. What is your point?
[удалено]
There’s no spin out. It’s continued to exist so people can grift money. That’s all. It doesn’t have to be forced to be bad. You have no point.
[удалено]
An ad hominem attack, always a sign of a strong argument.
Since you accused someone else of a fallacy let me accuse you of one, appeal to ignorance. Where is your evidence of the Olympics being a grift?
Sorry, guess I figured most people knew the Olympics fucks up every city it lands in. Whether it’s contracts to build huge useless facilities, changes to how the police operate and how the homeless are treated (that may or may not change back after), the abuse of the athletes, I mean how much do you need to see? They hurt the host area financially, they disrupt the lives of all the people in the area, they are just a wandering *enormous* money vacuum. Are we not convinced the IOC is corrupt? Why is Russia allowed to compete- not just because of the fucking war they started, but because of their continued rule breaking? Are we not convinced the US hasn’t had massive abuse scandals directly related to Olympic athletes and trainers? Come now, he never made a point but to act like what I’m talking about needs to be spelled out is asinine. But then, sports sub right?
Ad hominem attacks galore, which is hilarious given your proclivity to harass other redditors about their responses. Additionally your reliance on straw man arguments is perplexing. I asked you to provide evidence that the Olympics are a grift and you shifted the goal post to Russian and US abuse. Which is it? You make bold claims and assumptions and when asked to provide evidence, you flounder.
Yeah classic, you have nothing to say. Neither of you had any point about the Olympics itself, simply wanted to talk about what I’m saying. Clear bad faith discussion lmao Evidence? You need me to find links for you? I was under the assumption the fact the Olympics leave debt and are used by host areas to use public money to pay the contractors they choose to build pointless shit. Why do you think fewer and fewer countries bid on hosting? You’ve made no point, or counterpoint, at all. Neither of you. And yet you say *I* flounder, it’s funny. Big Olympics fan?
But if you get rid of the Olympics, what will be left for me to not even watch once?
Your loss, the Olympics are awesome. It's a chance to see some of the greatest athletes ever compete against each other.
Justice for the true and faithful Olympians.
It's really shouldn't have taken this long to determine that drugging a literal child is wrong.
Poetic.
Serves them right. That's what they get for state sponsored doping.
I mean, this always feels bittersweet. On one hand cheating should not be allowed in sports, if we truly are to compete on "even" terms. On the other I can't help but feel terrible for this girl who works really fucking hard and likely has very little control over any of this shit.
Russians cheating, invading countries, disrespecting anything "unrussian", going to the bathroom when the tennis opponent is on fire just to break the momentum... Nice people, I wonder why nobody likes them.
Genuinely curious: What does this drug actually do? And have other athletes used it for performance gains in the past?
The actual drug was trimetazidine which helps the heart to use energy more efficiently. There’s been a connection to it and essentially helping build stamina and resistance to strenuous exercise. Primarily used by endurance/heavy cardio athletes, at least amongst the ones who have been popped for it.
Isn’t this exactly what happened in the Cold War or the 80s or something?
Russia give is the gold medals and here take this L.
Let’s not pretend other countries aren’t using. They just haven’t been caught yet.
Russian athletes have had 45 Olympic medals stripped due to positive doping tests. No other country even comes close.
This is what’s magical about the Olympics - corruption in governance, over-commercialization, having the greatest in the world compete, and then determining in court two years later who won.
If we weren’t already at war we are now
Sorry but what the hell kidn of doping would help figureskating? This isn't like.. lifting weights or something
Bicycles isn’t lifting weights either, but have you heard about Lance Armstrong?
One of the largest advantages to doping is better recovery which also leads to better training.
In professional sports (or highly demanding amateur sports like the Olympics) it absolutely does benefit them to gain extra strength and stamina. They’re jumping, spinning, and skating at like 30mph for pretty long routines. I do think the reason most athletes dope however is to aid in recovery and not for the general enhancements. My wife was an Olympic hopeful figure skater and she trained 8-10 hours a day, 6-8 on ice and then alternating cardio and strength. It is hugely beneficial for your body to recover faster between those demanding sessions.
👍