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Canadian Chase Claypool catches game-winning TD as Steelers remain undefeated – CBC.ca

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The Pittsburgh Steelers rallied behind Ben Roethlisberger to remain the lone unbeaten team in the NFL, beating error-prone Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens 28-24 Sunday in a duel for first place in the AFC North.

Roethlisberger threw a pair of second-half touchdown passes to bring Pittsburgh (7-0) back from a 10-point halftime deficit. After completing only four passes for 24 yards in the first half, the 38-year-old finished 21 for 32 for 182 yards.

Jackson threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles, turnovers that helped Pittsburgh stay within striking distance until its offence finally got on track.

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The Steelers led 28-24 when the Ravens (5-2) faced a fourth-and-3 at the Pittsburgh 8 with 2 minutes left. Jackson ran a quarterback draw and lost the ball while being stopped short.

Baltimore got the ball back and moved to the Pittsburgh 23 before Jackson’s pass in the end zone was broken up on the final play.

Earlier, Robert Spillane took an interception back for a score to end Baltimore’s first possession, Jackson lost a fumble inside the Pittsburgh 5, and Alex Hightower set up a Steelers touchdown by picking off a pass on Baltimore’s initial offensive play of the second half.

Jackson went 13 for 28 for 208 yards and two interceptions, the most he’s had in a regular-season game since throwing three against Pittsburgh in October 2019.

After Hightower’s pick, Roethlisberger threw an 18-yard TD pass to Eric Ebron. The Steelers then went ahead 21-17 on a 1-yard touchdown run by James Conner.

Baltimore had scored in every quarter this season before being blanked in the third period.

Jackson made it 24-21 with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Marquise Brown with 11:52 to go, but Roethlisberger answered with an 80-yard drive capped by an 8-yard TD pass to rookie Chase Claypool.

The 22-year-old Abbotsford, B.C., native finished the game with five catches for 42 yards and his fifth receiving touchdown of the season.

Ravens All-Pro left tackle Ronnie Stanley sustained a season-ending left ankle injury in the first quarter after being accidentally undercut by Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt.

After Pittsburgh went up 7-0 on Spillane’s 33-yard touchdown, the Ravens pulled even on a 6-yard touchdown catch by Miles Boykin. Baltimore then drove inside the Steelers 10 before Bud Dupree jostled the ball from Jackson’s grasp and Vince Williams recovered at the 4.

Wilson, Metcalf lead Seahawks past 49ers

Russell Wilson threw four more touchdown passes, two to DK Metcalf, and the Seattle Seahawks rebounded from their first loss of the season with a resounding 37-27 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Wilson and Metcalf tormented San Francisco and its banged up secondary as the top-scoring offence in the league continued to pile up points. The Seahawks (6-1) have scored at least 30 points in six of seven games.

Wilson hit Metcalf on a pair of first-half touchdown passes, but it was a 2 1/2-minute sequence midway through the third quarter when Seattle blew the game open.

Wilson found rookie DeeJay Dallas on a 2-yard TD pass to open the second half for a 20-7 lead. Dante Pettis fumbled the ensuing kickoff on a big hit from Cody Barton. Six plays later, Wilson evaded pressure in the pocket and zipped a 6-yard TD pas to David Moore for a 27-7 lead.

Seattle added one more score on a 1-yard TD run by Dallas with 3:33 left after the 49ers pulled within 10.

Wilson finished 27 of 37 for 261 yards and has 26 TD passes on the season, one behind Tom Brady for the most in the first seven games of a season.

Metcalf had another career day in his breakout second season. Metcalf had 102 yards receiving in the first half and finished with a career-high 12 catches and 161 yards receiving.

49ers quaterback Jimmy Garoppolo was just 11 of 16 for 84 yards and an ugly interception in the first quarter. Garoppolo went to the locker room with an ankle injury early in the fourth quarter and was replaced by Nick Mullens.

Running back Tevin Coleman returned for the first time since early in the season, only to leave at halftime with a knee injury. George Kittle made a terrific 25-yard catch early in the fourth quarter, but limped to the locker room with a foot injury.

Mullens led San Francisco on three TD drives in the fourth quarter. He capped the second with a 16-yard TD pass to Ross Dwelley with 4:16 left, but the 2-point conversion failed. Mullens was 18 of 25 for 238 yards and two touchdowns.

Saints edge Bears in OT

Drew Brees threw two touchdowns to regain the NFL’s all-time lead from Tom Brady, Wil Lutz nailed a 35-yard field goal in overtime and the New Orleans Saints beat Chicago 26-23 on Sunday.

The Bears’ Cairo Santos booted a 51-yard field goal at the end of regulation to force the extra period.

The Saints (5-2) led 23-13 early in the fourth quarter after scoring 20 consecutive points, only to have Chicago rally in the closing minutes of regulation. But the Saints pulled out their fourth straight win when Lutz connected on their second possession of OT.

Chicago receiver Javon Wims got ejected for punching New Orleans safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson in the third quarter. Marshon Lattimore then intercepted Nick Foles, leading to a tiebreaking field goal by Lutz.

Brees added a 20-yard touchdown to Taysom Hill to make it 23-13 early in the fourth. The Bears (5-3) pulled within three with 3:32 remaining on Foles’ 3-yard pass to Darnell Mooney.

Chicago tied it with 13 seconds left on Santos’ field goal into the wind.

Brees completed 31 of 41 passes for 280 yards. Along with the TD to Hill in the fourth, he threw a 16-yarder to Jared Cook in the closing seconds of the first half to cut Chicago’s lead to 13-10. Brees now has 560 TDs in his career, with Brady at 559.

Foles was 28 of 41 for 272 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

Allen Robinson had a sprawling 24-yard TD reception in the back of the end zone in the second quarter. Rookie Darnell Mooney added a career-high 69 yards receiving and a touchdown.

Eagles beat Cowboys in sloppy battle for 1st place

Carson Wentz threw a pair of touchdown passes to overcome four turnovers, Rodney McLeod returned a fumble 53 yards for a score and the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys 23-9 on Sunday night.

A pair of two-win teams fighting for first place in the weak NFC East in Week 8 put on a sloppy performance fit for the preseason instead of prime time. The Eagles (3-4-1) took control of the division with their second straight victory. Dallas (2-6) has lost three in a row.

Cowboys quarterback Ben DiNucci, a seventh-round pick from James Madison making his first start, was sacked four times and lost two fumbles. He completed 21 of 40 passes for 180 yards.

Wentz threw two interceptions and lost two fumbles but his 9-yard TD pass to Travis Fulgham in the third quarter gave Philadelphia the lead for good. Wentz connected with Jalen Reagor on the 2-point conversion to make it 15-9.

Dallas was driving at the Eagles 21 with a chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter when DiNucci was sacked by T.J. Edwards and fumbled. McLeod picked up a loose ball and went the distance for a 21-9 lead. The 2-point conversion failed, but Dallas later took a safety on a punt.

Greg Zuerlein hit a 59-yard field goal to give Dallas a 9-7 halftime lead. The Cowboys turned two fourth-down stops at their 44 into short-drive field goals.

DiNucci drove Dallas effectively on the opening possession and Zuerlein kicked a 49-yard field goal.

The Cowboys then had an excellent opportunity after Donovan Wilson strip-sacked Wentz and recovered at the Eagles 25. Dallas had a first down at the Eagles 4 before Brandon Graham stripped DiNucci on second down and recovered.

Philadelphia turned that turnover into a score as Wentz tossed a 2-yard TD pass to Reagor for a 7-3 lead. Reagor, the 21st overall pick, missed the previous five games following thumb surgery. A 32-yard pass to Fulgham set up the score.

The Eagles went for a fourth-and-3 at the Cowboys 44 on their next drive. Leighton Vander Esch sacked Wentz, knocking the ball away and Dallas recovered at Philadelphia’s 46. Zuerlein’s 49-yarder cut it to 7-6.

Mahomes powers Chiefs past Jets

Patrick Mahomes did just about everything for the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

He even toted Tyreek Hill back to the sideline after a touchdown catch.

The reigning Super Bowl MVP threw for 416 yards and five touchdowns, leading the AFC West-leading Chiefs to a 35-9 romp over the winless New York Jets.

Travis Kelce added 109 yards receiving and a touchdown, Mecole Hardman and Demarcus Robinson also scored, helping the Chiefs (7-1) give Andy Reid his 229th win to move into a tie with Curly Lambeau for the fifth most in NFL history.

Darnold was just 18 of 30 for 133 yards as the Jets fell to 0-8 for the first time since the 1996 team of Rich Kotite.

The Chiefs were astounding 19-point favourites coming into the game, and the opening series made it clear that wouldn’t be nearly enough. Mahomes was 5 of 5 for 85 yards, and he finished off the 90-yard drive with a 30-yard pass to Hardman.

While the Jets answered with the first of three first-half field goals, the Chiefs kept scoring touchdowns.

Mahomes threw a dart over the middle to Hill for a 36-yard touchdown on their next drive, then he flipped a nifty pass underneath the Jets coverage to Kelce for his third TD pass of the half and a 21-9 lead at the break.

Mahomes hit Robinson from 26 yards out for his fourth TD pass, giving Kansas City a 28-9 lead late in the third quarter.

Mahomes capped his big day with his second touchdown throw to Hill early in the fourth. His five TD passes were second only to a pair of six-TD games he had against the Steelers and Rams — incidentally, the Jets have four touchdown passes all season — and his yardage total was the fourth most of his career.

Tagovailoa wins debut against Rams

Tua Tagovailoa threw his first career touchdown pass and then let his teammates take over with a succession of big plays, and the Miami Dolphins stamped themselves as playoff contenders Sunday by earning their third consecutive win, 28-17 against the Los Angeles Rams.

The Dolphins struck for scores 75 seconds apart on Andrew Van Ginkel’s 78-yard fumble return and Jakeem Grant’s team-record 88-yard punt return. They came up with four takeaways in the first half and at halftime led 28-10 despite being outgained 224-54.

The big plays helped Tagovailoa overcome a costly early turnover in his first NFL start. The No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft finished 12 of 22 for 93 yards.

Los Angeles’ Jared Goff went 35 for 61 for 355 yards and one score with two interceptions and two lost fumbles.

The first time Tagovailoa tried to throw, the ball came loose when his arm was hit by Aaron Donald, and Tagovailoa was then driven to the turf by Michael Brockers as Leonard Floyd recovered the fumble.

Los Angeles scored a touchdown three plays later for a 7-0 lead.

Tagovailoa capitalized on their first takeaway by throwing a 3-yard touchdown pass to DeVante Parker. Tagovailoa retrieved the ball as a souvenir and carried it to the sideline, where the former Alabama star entertained teammates with a celebratory dance.

The Rams were threatening when Emmanuel Ogbah forced a fumble by sacking Goff. Van Ginkel scooped the ball up with nothing but open field in front of him and sprinted the distance to give Miami a 14-7 lead.

Barely a minute later, Grant sprinted through a seam in the Rams’ punt coverage for his fifth career return TD, and his third punt return for a score, both franchise records.

Shaq Lawson’s strip-sack of Goff and Kyle Van Noy’s return gave the Dolphins the ball at the 1, and they scored on the next play for a 28-7 lead.

Bills beat Patriots on Newton’s late fumble

Backup defensive lineman Justin Zimmer punched the ball out of Cam Newton’s arms and the fumble was recovered by safety Dean Marlowe at the Buffalo 13 with 31 seconds remaining to secure the Bills’ 24-21 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday.

Zack Moss scored two touchdowns rushing and the AFC East-leading Bills are off to consecutive 6-2 starts for the first time since a six-year run from 1988 to 1993.

Buffalo snapped a seven-game skid against the division-rival Patriots, and beat a New England-coached Bill Belichick team for just the sixth time in 41 meetings, going back to 2000.

New England dropped to 2-5 and has lost four in a row, matching its worst skid since 2002.

The game was decided just as the Patriots were threatening to at least force overtime. Facing second-and-10 at the Buffalo 19, Newton took the snap and followed a line of blockers to his left. Zimmer came diving in from behind and punched out the ball, which rolled directly into Marlowe’s arms.

Newton finished 15 of 25 for 174 yards passing, and added 54 yards rushing plus a touchdown. Damien Harris had 102 yards rushing and scored on a 22-yard run.

Josh Allen went 11 of 18 for 154 yards passing and also scored on a 2-yard run in a game the Bills never trailed. He had one interception, which led to the Patriots cutting Buffalo’s lead to 7-6 on Nick Folk’s 33-yard field goal with 8 seconds left in the first half.

Tyler Bass’ 28-yard field goal with 4:06 remaining broke the 21-21 tie, after Allen’s pass to Gabriel Davis sailed through the receiver’s arms in the end zone.

Garrett hurts knee as Browns fall to Raiders

Myles Garrett has a knee injury that could alter the rest of Cleveland’s season.

The NFL sacks leader injured his knee in the first quarter Sunday and was ineffective the rest of the way as the Browns were beaten 16-6 by the Las Vegas Raiders.

Garrett got hurt early, was examined in the medical tent and played sparingly in the second half. The Browns put him in during obvious pass-rushing downs, but the star end lacked his usual explosiveness and didn’t record a sack for the first time in seven games.

He’ll undergo an MRI on Monday, and the Browns (5-3) are hoping it shows nothing serious.

Garrett’s injury aside, the Browns failed to build on the momentum from their thrilling win last week at Cincinnati.

Mayfield was plagued by several big drops, including one by Jarvis Landry, the normally sure-handed receiver being asked to do even more with Odell Beckham Jr. out for the season with a knee injury.

With the Raiders up 6-3 in the third quarter, Landry’s 20-yard TD catch from Mayfield was overturned by a replay review, which showed he bobbled the ball and hit the ground for an incompletion. The Browns settled for a 33-yard field by Parkey.

Mayfield went 12 of 25 for 122 yards but couldn’t get into a rhythm.

Raiders tackle Trent Brown, who recently tested positive or COVID-19, will remain hospitalized in Cleveland overnight.

A person with knowledge of Brown’s status told The Associated Press he will not travel with the team in order to take more tests. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team hadn’t announced an update on Brown.

NFL Network reported that he was taken to the hospital after a pregame IV caused air to enter his bloodstream. Gruden didn’t provide any details on Brown other than to say he was being evaluated and that “everything is OK.”

Cook shines as Vikings knock off Packers

Dalvin Cook gained 226 yards from scrimmage and became the first Viking in over four decades to score four touchdowns in a single game as Minnesota defeated the Green Bay Packers 28-22 on Sunday.

The Vikings withstood a three-touchdown performance from receiver Davante Adams, who had seven catches for 53 yards.

Cook ran for 163 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries. Cook also had two catches for 63 yards, including a 50-yard score.

Adams’ 7-yard touchdown cut Minnesota’s lead to 28-20 with 2:42 left. Green Bay went a 2-point conversion got within 28-22 when replays determined the ball crossed the goal line on Jamaal Williams’ inside run.

When Cook wasn’t scoring for Minnesota, Adams was reaching the end zone for Green Bay on a 5-yard reception and a 1-yard catch.

Cook kept it going by racing 37 yards on the first play of the second half. He capped that drive with a 1-yard run that gave Minnesota its first lead at 21-14 with 10 minutes left in the third quarter.

Minnesota faced third-and-9 from midfield when Cook caught Kirk Cousins’ pass behind the line of scrimmage and worked his way around or past a variety of Packers defenders to put the Vikings ahead 28-14.

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"Laugh it off": Evander Kane says Oilers won’t take the bait against Kings | Offside

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The LA Kings tried every trick in the book to get the Edmonton Oilers off their game last night.

Hacks after the whistle, punches to the face, and interference with line changes were just some of the things that the Oilers had to endure, and throughout it all, there was not an ounce of retaliation.

All that badgering by the Kings resulted in at least two penalties against them and fuelled a red-hot Oilers power play that made them pay with three goals on four chances. That was by design for Edmonton, who knew that LA was going to try to pester them as much as they could.

That may have worked on past Oilers teams, but not this one.

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“We’ve been in a series now for the third year in a row with these guys,” Kane said after practice this morning. “We know them, they know us… it’s one of those things where maybe it makes it a little easier to kind of laugh it off, walk away, or take a shot.

“That type of stuff isn’t gonna affect us.”

Once upon a time, this type of play would get under the Oilers’ skin and result in retaliatory penalties. Yet, with a few hard-knock lessons handed down to them in the past few seasons, it seems like the team is as determined as ever to cut the extracurriculars and focus on getting revenge on the scoreboard.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the longest-tenured player on this Oilers team, had to keep his emotions in check with Kings defender Vladislav Gavrikov, who punched him in the face early in the game. The easy reaction would be to punch back, but the veteran Nugen-Hopkins took his licks and wound up scoring later in the game.

“It’s going to be physical, the emotions are high, and there’s probably going to be some stuff after the whistle,” Nugent-Hopkins told reporters this morning. “I think it’s important to stay poised out there and not retaliate and just play through the whistles and let the other stuff just kind of happen.”

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch also noticed his team’s discipline. Playoff hockey is full of emotion, and keeping those in check to focus on the larger goal is difficult. He was happy with how his team set the tone.

“It’s not necessarily easy to do,” Knoblauch said. “You get punched in the face and sometimes the referees feel it’s enough to call a penalty, sometimes it’s not… You just have to take them, and sometimes, you get rewarded with the power play.

“I liked our guy’s response and we want to be sticking up for each other, we want to have that pack mentality, but it’s really important that we’re not the ones taking that extra penalty.”

There is no doubt that the Kings will continue to poke and prod at the Oilers as the series continues. Keeping those retaliations in check will only get more difficult, but if the team can continue to succeed on the scoreboard, it could get easier.

 

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Thatcher Demko injured, out for Game 2 between Canucks and Predators – Vancouver Is Awesome

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Thatcher Demko returned from injury just in time for the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs but now is injured again.

After the Vancouver Canucks’ victory in Game 1, Demko was not made available to the media as he was “receiving treatment.” This is not unusual, so was not heavily reported at the time. Monday’s practice was turned into an optional skate — just nine players participated — so Demko’s absence did not seem particularly significant.

But when Demko was also missing from Tuesday’s gameday skate, alarm bells started going off.

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According to multiple reports — and now the Canucks’ head coach, Rick Tocchet —Demko will not play in Game 2 and is in fact questionable for the rest of their series against the Nashville Predators.

Demko made 22 saves on 24 shots, none bigger — and potentially injury-inducing — than his first-period save on Anthony Beauvillier where he went into the full splits.

While this is not necessarily where Demko got injured, it would be understandable if it was. Demko still stayed in the game and didn’t seem to be experiencing any difficulties at the time.

Demko is a major difference-maker for the Canucks and his injury casts a pall over the team’s emotional Game 1 victory

Tocchet confirmed that Demko will not start in Game 2 but said Demko did skate on Monday on his own. He also said that Demko’s injury is unrelated to the knee injury he suffered during the season that caused him to miss five weeks. Instead, Tocchet suggested Demko was day-to-day, leaving open the possibility for his return in the first round. 

TSN’s Farhan Lalji, however, has reported that Demko’s injury could indeed be to the same knee, even if it is not the same exact injury.

If Demko does indeed miss the rest of the series, the pressure will be on Casey DeSmith, who had a strong season when called upon intermittently as the team’s backup but struggled when thrust into the number-one role when Demko was injured. Behind DeSmith is rookie Arturs Silovs, who has come through with heroic performances in international competition for Latvia but hasn’t been able to repeat those performances at the NHL level.

DeSmith played one game against the Predators this season, making 26 saves on 28 shots in a 5-2 victory in December.

While DeSmith has limited experience in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, his one appearance was spectacular.

On May 3, 2022, DeSmith had to step in for the injured Tristan Jarry for the Pittsburgh Penguins, starting their first postseason game against the New York Rangers. DeSmith made 48 saves on 51 shots before leaving the game in the second overtime with an injury of his own, with Louis Domingue stepping in to make 17 more saves for the win.

The Canucks will look to allow significantly fewer than 51 shots on Tuesday night.

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Once again, business bumps ethics off the Olympic podium – The Globe and Mail

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Open this photo in gallery:

The Olympic rings are set up at Trocadero plaza that overlooks the Eiffel Tower in Paris.Michel Euler/The Associated Press

In the middle of a record haul at the Tokyo Olympics, Canada’s women’s swim team had one letdown – the 4×200-metre freestyle relay.

Canada had taken bronze in the event at Rio 2016 and again at the 2019 world aquatics championships. The team looked good for another medal.

On the day of the final, a Chinese team that was not considered a contender surprised everyone, winning in world-record time. Canada came fourth.

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A battling result, but still disappointing. It looks a little worse than that now.

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that nearly half the Chinese swim team failed a drug test seven months before the Tokyo Games. Twenty-three swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, or TMZ.

TMZ is a synthetic substance. You’re not going to pick it up because you’ve chosen the wrong hot-dog vendor.

China was allowed to do its own investigation into the mass positive. That probe determined the athletes had been exposed to TMZ in tainted food at a team hotel. How exactly so many of them ingested it, while others did not, wasn’t explained.

Unusually, no announcement was made about the positive tests, and no one was suspended while the investigation was under way. The World Anti-Doping Agency knew what was going on, but decided the best way to determine if China had done anything wrong was to ask China to look into it. When China gave China the all clear, WADA signed off.

One of those who tested positive was Zhang Yufei. Zhang won three medals in Tokyo, one of them as part of the 4x200m relay team.

The swimming world is now playing doping leapfrog throughout those Games. The Canadian relay team is on a long list of unlucky losers. Had China’s violations stuck, the medal table would look very different.

It would also have pushed a Games that was on the edge closer to the drop. Few in Japan were super stoked about the world dropping by en masse during what would become that country’s first mass COVID wave.

The main reason the Tokyo Games happened was that so much money had been spent, much more was still owed, and insurers were not willing to write down 10 or 15 billion.

Picking a fight with China in that precarious moment could not have seemed like a great idea. Even more precarious – the next Games, to be held six months later in Beijing.

As an event, at absolute best, Beijing 2022 was going to be a very expensive bummer (which it absolutely was). That’s the sort of party that’s easy to call off.

You don’t need to be a Reddit obsessive to see what happened here. The Chinese swim team got caught mid-purge, and the people in charge had to prioritize their response.

Priority No. 1 – the Olympic business.

Priority No. 2 – the Olympic ideals.

They picked money over fairness.

It’s easy to lash them now, so plenty of people are. The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called it “a devastating stab in the back of clean athletes.”

(Is it possible to be undevastatingly stabbed in the back?)

The stickiest criticism involves Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. She also tested positive for trace amounts of TMZ before an Olympics. She also had one of those ‘maybe the dog gave me steroids’-type excuses.

But since everybody hates Russia, Valieva did not get the benefit of an in-house probe. She was dragged upside-down and backward through the global press and stripped of her medals. There’s your fairness.

It’s fitting that WADA take a reputational beating here. That is its most useful function – to absorb stakeholder rage after another own goal has been scored by the Doping Police.

But out in the real world, no one cares. Of course the Olympics is dirty. The Olympics has spent the last half century repeatedly reminding us of that.

Between Games, the Olympics makes news only two ways – ‘Upcoming host city X is having serious second thoughts’ and ‘So-and-so cheated their way to gold.’

These stories have become so numerous that the only people registering them are the ones who make their living in an Olympics-adjacent business, like sports administration or media.

Those people are happy to complain – complaining is good for trade – but they don’t want things to change. Change is dangerous. Who knows where change will land you?

In this specific instance, real change in the form of zero tolerance could have hobbled one Olympics and gotten the next one cancelled. Then what?

You start cancelling Olympics and people learn to live without them. Sponsors find new things to sponsor. Broadcasters move on.

Better to compromise. Chinese swimmers did a little TMZ. So what? Figure skaters, tennis players, breaststrokers – everybody’s doing it nowadays. It’s like weed for the Marx and Engels crowd.

With all that in mind, here’s something you won’t often read in this space – WADA made the right call.

It’s not like it was going to go swanning into Guangdong province in early 2021, right in the teeth of the pandemic, to figure out what was what. The only way to get any sort of answers was to rely on Chinese investigators. How do you know if they’re on the up and up? You don’t. WADA had two choices – take China’s word for it, or go scorched earth right before the two most tenuously assembled Games in history.

The proof that WADA made the correct choice is that those Games happened. Maybe it would make a different call now, and that might be right, too.

As far as fairness goes, it doesn’t belong in this conversation.

If a Belgian or a Tanzanian gets caught cheating, don’t even bother asking for consideration.

An American? Probably not.

An American everyone knows? Maybe.

A lot of Americans everybody knows? Let’s talk.

This can’t be discussed because once that discussion gets going, it points toward the sort of change no current stakeholder want to think about. If someone who tests positive can negotiate their way out of it and fairness is the goal, isn’t it fairer to stop testing altogether?

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