No matter how the IOC tries to spin it, the enduring symbol of the Beijing Games -- and really, the entire Olympic movement -- is a sad little girl put in an untenable position by adults who have no shame. A lot of serious issues will need to be addressed after the flame is extinguished, from doping rules to age limits to tyrannical coaches, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the bigger questions: What will it take for the Olympics to truly live up to its ideals? Is meaningful change even possible at this point?
“Who will save Olympic and Paralympic sport in our time?” asked Max Cobb, the president and CEO of the U.S. biathlon program. “I don’t think the movement can take many more years of this doubted authenticity before its value is so eroded that other interests eclipse it and it’s lost for another millennia.”
Kamila Valieva flew away from the Winter Olympics on Friday,
her dreams crushed at the tender age of 15, and there’s no reason to think she’d ever want to return after what she went through in Beijing.
