anitadefrantz

Hello Skaryan, thanks for the question - one that hits close to home as I was one of the IOC officers in charge of investigating a massive conspiracy in 2016 to enhance certain Olympic teams with illegal substances.

To start, please do not confuse my explanation with a justification of this. I raced against the Soviet Union and they were most certainly doped. Now, it is clear that the Russians are using a sophisticated means of doping their athletes. It pains me to no end that the US Congress passed an act that uses the name of the man who created the system and was able to escape Russia because of a US citizen who wanted to learn how he could dope to become better in cycling.

Regarding colors: You are referring to the recent outcome from the Court of Arbitration for sport, or CAS. In their ruling, (I have not yet read the entire 150 pages) they allow the national colors (red white and blue) on their uniforms and the word Russia along with the words neutral athletes, but no flags or anthems at the Games. The time was shortened from the WADA decision of 4 years to cover only the Tokyo and Beijing Games. All Russian athletes must prove they are clean athletes through their International Federations as was the case for Rio and Pyeongchang.

Also, all athletes who compete must have external verification of their status as clean, non doped participants. Additionally, the IOC stores athletes' drug samples for ten years after the Games and can retest those samples. So far, hundreds of athletes have had to return their medals because the detection system now has a decade to improve.

The Independent Testing Agency has continued to test athletes in and out of competition training despite COVID 19 - since during prep/training, that is where an athlete gets the best results for doping.

Today, we are working to do more. Of the 15 members of the IOC Executive Board, eight are Olympians: four women and four men. We competed during the bad old days without the support of WADA, so we are very serious about only having clean athletes at the Games. Outside of the Games it is the responsibility of International Federations and National Anti-Doping agencies like USADA. The Russian one is not accredited and cannot be used.

Hello Gawwse!

The question of wrestling has been resolved as the International Federation now conforms to the rules. Weightlifting is the one that is currently being questioned given the amount of doping that has been a part of that sport.

Hi coach_pato, thanks for your question.

To make it clear for the audience, Caster Semaya is an intersex individual who was assigned the female gender at birth. She is not a transgendered individual nor a male competing in women's events.

Now, with that bit of background being clear, I think the way she was treated by the World Athletics Federation (their new name) has been abysmal and unnecessarily hurtful. We are at a moment in this world when biological and chemical differences among people can be discerned scientifically. Thus far, only some science has found that the amount of testosterone (which is activated) can make differences in performances.

That is the case in people with certain syndromes (I am an attorney not a scientist, so I may not be using the proper words in my explanation). Now, International Federations are creating their own rules for who can compete in women's events. The WAF has limits of Testosterone in specific distances and maybe field events, but not across all of their events.

The most pressing issue is the question of Transwomen and Transmen - which is a different category of discussion altogether.

Overall, I think the fact that the results in womens and mens events continue to be different give us some information to utilize in our discussion about testosterone levels in athletes: and also in the debate about transgendered athletes' performances.

Hi keetojm, thank you for your question.

Here's my answer: Yes and no. the actual organizing of the Games for example in Montreal, had a positive result. If you add the capital construction which stays in the city, that is another benefit that can be included in discussions of ROI. For example, even today, the Montreal Olympic Village is still providing housing. The IOC is working hard to get people to understand the difference between the initial organizing costs and the anticipated capital construction which stays with the city as investment infrastructure.

Hi ancientflowers,

I am answering all of the questions myself. However, due to the unexpected volume of questions in such a short time, I have a younger, tech-savvier friend sitting with me and helping to organize all of the questions into a queue. I'm proceeding as fast as I can and will continue to answer everyone into tomorrow!