Feckless. That’s the best word to describe the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), but this week they actually used some of their power when they shut down the Federal University testing lab in Rio de Janeiro for not meeting international standards.
Which would be a good thing normally, but there’s one big problem and it gets bigger every single day. The 2016 Summer Olympics are barely more than a month away. If the lab in Rio is shut down, who the hell is going to test all that high-powered athlete piss?
IOC: Unclear Rio's suspended doping lab will be ready in time for Olympics https://t.co/FsDgo7AtrF @stephenwadeAP #RoadToRio
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) June 26, 2016
Just add this to the pile of problems Rio has experienced this year as it prepares to hose the Games of the XXXI Olympiad. They’re dealing with a health crisis with the Zika virus, a super bacteria infecting their tourist beaches and Olympic venues and their entire city and national government is falling apart. Other than that, it’s pretty great.
This was the wrong time to get on WADA’s bad side. their dealing with tons of bad press for letting Russia get away with doping and cheating for the last decade (at least) so they won’t hesitate to bring the hammer down anymore. Russia has been suspended for the Rio games.
The WADA has to justify their existence and the fact that there’s little doubt the Rio facility was a trainwreck at least makes it warranted.
“The suspension will only be lifted by the WADA when the laboratory is operating optimally,” the WADA’s new director general Oliveri Niggli said in a statement. “The best solutions will be put in place to ensure that sample analysis for the Rio Olympics and Paralympic Games is robust.”
Rio Drug Testing Lab Is Suspended Weeks Before Olympics https://t.co/KPj59tOZSD
— NPR (@NPR) June 24, 2016
The Rio lab has 21 days to appeal the suspension. WADA has said that Olympic samples will now go to another facility, but hasn’t pinpointed where that is, how far away from the actual games it will be or how quickly results will be available.
In the meantime the lab expects to win its appeal and be back running normally by July. According to Reuters, the Federal University facility blamed the shutdown on “technical errors”. If they don’t win their appeal, they’ll be suspended from international competition for six months.
Kemar Bailey-Cole has Zika
One Olympic athlete doesn’t have to worry about catching the Zika virus while at the games in Rio because he already has it. Kemar Bailey-Cole, a sprinter from Jamaica’s lightning-fast team and 2012 gold medal winner in the 4-x-100 relay announced Saturday that he’d contracted the illness.
Bailey-Cole was a serious contender to medal in Rio, with his main competition obviously being on his own team, All-Universe sprinter Usain Bolt. Bailey-Cole won the 100 meters in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland two years ago. Zika could cost him his spot on the team.
Jamaican sprinter Kemar Bailey-Cole reveals Zika infection but Is competing https://t.co/Ro3NUMxp2b pic.twitter.com/25tJYX4vT6
— ABC News (@ABC) June 26, 2016
“I was experiencing back pains and muscle soreness, but I thought it was just soreness from the exercises I was doing,” Bailey-Cole told The Guardian. “I didn’t know I had it until I went to get a haircut. After cleaning up my girlfriend realized a bump was on my neck, which was a lymph node.”
It’s been a bad stretch for Bailey-Cole who caught the last big mosquito-borne virus going around, Chikungunya, in 2015 causing him to miss most of the events that year.
It’s another bad break for Bailey-Cole who already had to compete with Bolt, Yohan Blake, Nickel Ashmeade and Asafa Powell to even make the team.
Team USA loses Lebron
It’s not exactly going to be the new Dream Team when the USA Men’s Basketball team takes the court in Rio in August. Cleveland Cavaliers star and Northern Ohio savior Lebron James officially opted out of the games this week and playing and winning gold in the last two Summer Olympics.
LeBron James will not be heading to the 2016 Rio Olympics https://t.co/KOBArTgyIl pic.twitter.com/I9KLY5C2V9
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) June 24, 2016
James is just the latest of a slew of NBA superstars telling Team USA to kick rocks. Steph Curry has already bowed out, as has Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, John Wall, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LAMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard.
Team USA will announce its roster this week.
