Why suspend an entire country? Why not just ban the individual athletes, who cheated, from the Olympics? Why should we generalize an entire country, and make innocent hard working athletes suffer for a select few? The decision by the IOC was a plot against Russia, influenced by politics, and no less than that. Anyway, Bettman has been avenged by this news, so he's happy, since the KHL will not participate. The IOC look like a bunch of dummies.
I dont think you have actually studied the scope of this.
This isnt just the entire Russian under-18 team getting banned for doping.
Were talking more than 1000 Russian athletes between 2011-2015. Systemic doping with full knowledge and participation of the state. This isnt generalizing an entire country when the country has cheating as its official position. 30-50% of all Russian medalists were implicated based on which event was being held.
I would hold off stigmatizing the athletes as much as the state in this though as we do not know who was complicit or who was bullied into doing this. All I know is that if this was happening in my country, public outcry would be so massive that the government would probably fall within a week.
The proof is so damning, people that are defending this are really starting to look ridiculous. I'd rather have the rest of the sports world angry at me but happy I am cleaning up my house versus what we are seeing. Tin foil hat conspiracies and laughable denials combined with a complete lack of accountability.
If the Russian government (and apparently most of the Russian comments I see) want to drive the final nail into the coffin of this generation of Russian athletes as cheaters and liars, they are free to do so but history will not kind to them.
......and one more thing on the IOC (an organization of which I am not a fan), it would be faaaaaaaaaar harder to pull off a credible conspiracy of this scope than for it to have actually happened the way all the evidence says it happened. A little self reflection would be important here......or do you think all Russian whistleblowers should be shot like "Stalin would have done" as was said by the honorary President of Russia's Olympic committee.
This is insanity and its hard to fathom those who would defend it.