IOC Further demonstrates why it is a political agency

Ok, so ... let's follow this train of thought for a moment.

The US, primarily, and according to the article, pushed the IOC about Russia and doping.  Because the whole doping issue makes the IOC look bad, the IOC will take that out on LA's bid for the Olympics.

Yes.  Ok.  So, a question is - did any US athletes use any drugs to enhance their abilities in the last 14 days?  Not as far as anyone is aware.  Did any Ethiopian athletes use any drugs to enhance their abilities?  Not as far as anyone is aware.   Did any athletes from the UK use ... Not as far as anyone is aware.  Did any Canadian ... Not as far as anyone is aware.  So ... why is it that the US will get discriminated against because they pushed the IOC to do what the IOC should do, because it is their responsibility to do it.

They are further turning this into a political program - back to Beijing?  Really.  Why not North Korea.

Anti-U.S. mood could hurt Los Angeles in bid for Games

August 22, 2016

By Karolos Grohmann

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A bid by Los Angeles to host the 2024 Olympic Games could fall victim to anti-American sentiment brewing inside the International Olympic Committee, sources inside the IOC said.

The bid, which is competing against three European cities, risks an anti-U.S. protest vote by several IOC members angry over America's prominent role in pursuing doping allegations against Russian athletes, the sources said.

The IOC will decide on bids from Los Angeles, Paris, Rome and Budapest in September next year.

At least three non-Russian IOC members, speaking on condition of anonymity, said America's intervention into allegations of systematic Russian doping had marred the run-up to the Rio Games and tarnished the IOC brand.

"Of course the Los Angeles bid will face some consequences from this," an IOC member said.

The U.S. Department of Justice is probing allegations of Russian doping on U.S. soil, and the U.S. anti-doping agency (USADA) called for a total ban on Russians in Rio even as U.S. athletes with a history of positive drugs tests competed there.

[Ok, so ... an American athlete from 4 years ago or 3 years ago was suspended by the USOC or some other agency in the US for using some drug or having something in their system ... versus athletes in Russia being given the drugs as part of a governmental project - supported and endorsed from the top down.  An individual athlete in the US taking sudaphed is different than a Russian still taking, just having taken, and having done so with the Russian equivalent of the USOC telling them to.  So sorry if the US wants an equal playing field that benefits all athletes, including Americans.]

None of the IOC members interviewed by Reuters could give an estimate of how many of the IOC's 98 members were thinking along the same lines. Elections for host cities can be decided by a handful of votes and be heavily influenced by politics.

Last year's vote for the 2022 winter Olympics was won by Beijing, with just four votes more than Kazakhstan's Almaty.

Russia alone has three IOC members.

The head of the LA 2024 bid team, Casey Wasserman, said it would not make sense for IOC members to vote against Los Angeles on the basis of investigations totally unrelated to its bid.

"Doping agencies in America are independent. They are not under the control of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), they are certainly not under the control of a private independent bid which is what we are," Wasserman said.

"We are independent of USOC and of the city of Los Angeles, we are private and to somehow use that against us seems misguided," he added.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti has acknowledged that there could be a backlash from some IOC members but has also distanced the bid from the actions of the other, independent U.S. bodies, such as the Department of Justice and USADA.

Another IOC member said a separate Department of Justice investigation into corruption at world soccer's governing body, FIFA, also rankled with some committee members, given close links between the two sporting bodies.

Several senior FIFA officials were arrested last year, woken up at their five-star hotel in Zurich and held in prison pending extradition to the United States over corruption and embezzlement charges.

IOC member Issa Hayatou of Cameroon is FIFA's senior vice president, while Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad al Sabah of Kuwait, who is in charge of the IOC's central fund, the Olympic Solidarity, is a member of the FIFA council.

Neither of the two members, who declined to comment, has been named in relation to investigations of the FIFA cases.

Another IOC member said there would be "significant" fallout for the Los Angeles bid.

A Canadian lawyer's investigation into what he called systematic Russian doping led to the world athletics federation banning the country's track and field team, with the exception of just one athlete, from the Rio Games.

USADA had formed a coalition of anti-doping bodies calling for a blanket ban on all Russian competitors at the Games, but the IOC eventually cleared more than 270 Russians to compete.

Last month, United World Wrestling Federation President Nenad Lalovic, an IOC member and a member of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) board, made comments to Reuters that were indicative of the frustration felt by some IOC members.

"USADA should be focused on the health of American athletes and those competing in the United States," Lalovic said.

"Now it seems that USADA and the Canadians took over responsibility of WADA. Nobody entitled them to do that."