2020 Olympic Games - qualification

    Quote from brahmin

    US Olympic Committee is not paid for by the US government, and hence not state sponsored doping. Individual athletes made their own decisions (yes some may be accidental).

    Lamar Odom (Basketball Player) wrote a book and admitted that he cheated in a drug test before the 2004 Olympics by giving his trainer's urine sample instead of his.


    Hard to believe that nobody did not notice anything . Or they did but simply let him get away?....We would be foolish not to think there's been many many more cases like that.


    The only reason he revealed that is because USA did not win Gold in 2004. Had they won of course he would have not said anything. And he's retired, so that won't affect anything anymore.

    Quote from pope

    Lamar Odom (Basketball Player) wrote a book and admitted that he cheated in a drug test before the 2004 Olympics by giving his trainer's urine sample instead of his.


    Hard to believe that nobody did not notice anything . Or they did but simply let him get away?....We would be foolish not to think there's been many many more cases like that.


    The only reason he revealed that is because USA did not win Gold in 2004. Had they won of course he would have not said anything. And he's retired, so that won't affect anything anymore.

    Nice of him to admit that he cheated....not surprised that you're equating his used of cannabis to performance enhancing drugs. Because of course.


    Just so we're clear, you quoted brahmin - explaining why

    Russia's case is different coz "USOC is not paid for by the US government, and hence not state sponsored doping"...and you thought bringing up Lamar Odoms weed consumption add what exactly to this conversation? Oh yeah to speculate and change the optics .Right, right.. I got it now.

    Quote from Sisko95

    Sharapova is still a Nike athlete, they just suspended the relationship briefly after she was banned. Though her situation is totally different to the others you mentioned as she only broke the rules during one tournament which she didn’t perform well in anyway, a relatively minor indiscretion as the CAS found.


    i don't understand all about sharapova case and others, but what i read is that she took meldonium, along with MANY other RUS athletes, and there's no reason for any young person to be taking it (it's a drug for heart disease). that doesn't sound like a minor indiscretion...


    and btw, didn't some VB players also take meldonium?

    u got it right right.....He cheated in order to participate in the Olympics. Otherwise he would have not been able to compete, unless u think street drugs are allowed LOL . We are talking about Russians cheating...which means we can bring other cheaters to the conversation too....It is the Olympics......Same topic. u got it right right.


    cannabis relives pain and stress....This is exactly what many athletes are looking for.

    Quote from Sillynameplus567

    Nice of him to admit that he cheated....not surprised that you're equating his used of cannabis to performance enhancing drugs. Because of course.


    Just so we're clear, you quoted brahmin - explaining why

    Russia's case is different coz "USOC is not paid for by the US government, and hence not state sponsored doping"...and you thought bringing up Lamar Odoms weed consumption add what exactly to this conversation? Oh yeah to speculate and change the optics .Right, right.. I got it now.

    The issue was about Russia and performance enhancing drugs. Marijuana would give you just about the opposite of what a high performance athlete is looking for especially those trying to cheat to gain advantage. The only reason why it's included in the lists of WADAs band substance is because it's still considered a schedule 1 in America. They would not be open about a possible excemption if its something they deemed as highly illegal and unfair to clean athletes. Something they would never do with other band substances on their lists.


    What's "LOL" to me is that you seem to think smoking a blunt on the reg, on one's own time without anyone pressuring them to do so and a state sponsored doping scandal are the same. Like a body builder picking up a bong would get the same results as another body builder injecting HGH. Lol

    Quote from ossubtus

    i don't understand all about sharapova case and others, but what i read is that she took meldonium, along with MANY other RUS athletes, and there's no reason for any young person to be taking it (it's a drug for heart disease). that doesn't sound like a minor indiscretion...


    and btw, didn't some VB players also take meldonium?

    I don’t want to get into it too much because it’s a tennis matter but as you said some VB players apparently took it as well such as Kosheleva, so I guess it’s relevant.


    From what I understand a lot of sports doctors, used to prescribe meldonium to athletes for one reason or another. It’s not unusual for athletes to be given supplements to enhance performance that are considered perfectly legitimate, creatine is an example or even something as simple as fish oil. I guess the athletes probably thought of meldonium as something similar and indeed it wasn’t a banned substance until 2016. Sharapova had been using it for some time, was unaware of the change in rules and got caught in her first tournament of the year where she reached the QF.


    She broke the rules by mistake (CAS says so anyway), in just one tournament that she didn’t do that well in anyway. I called it relatively minor because it’s quite different to Lance Armstrong deliberately cheating his way to 7 Tour de France titles and more.


    Maybe they should never have been taking meldonium in the first place but the fact is it used to be allowed and you never know what substance WADA will decide to ban in future that maybe is in common use today so personally I don’t want to demonise them too much.

    Quote from pope

    Lamar Odom (Basketball Player) wrote a book and admitted that he cheated in a drug test before the 2004 Olympics by giving his trainer's urine sample instead of his.


    Hard to believe that nobody did not notice anything . Or they did but simply let him get away?....We would be foolish not to think there's been many many more cases like that.


    The only reason he revealed that is because USA did not win Gold in 2004. Had they won of course he would have not said anything. And he's retired, so that won't affect anything anymore.

    let's be reasonable, Neither Russia nor America is innocent. We all don't know their government support or not. Even if they support we will never know that. I don't care about Russia and America, and their politic relationships, what I care is that athletes who are 100% clean, no one has right to steal their olympic dream. Fetisova's interview really touched me, they should not upset our beautiful queen.

    Although it is sad that some innocent players will suffer from this decision, I think if we want a drastic difference in their attitude towards doping, there should be drastic sanctions. Any other mild warnings didn't deter them use dopings. It seems like it is a state supported issue so it makes sense that whole state is punished for this.

    to be honest, I think that many many athletes smoke weed. One year ago, When Conegliano won the supercup, Wołosz accidentaly added a video to her instastory, where Moretto is rolling joints.

    In the McClaren report published in 2016, there were at least 8 positive samples prior to London 2012 of Russian volleyball players.


    In the OQ played in Berlin 2015, Markin was tested positive with meldonium (he scored 17 points in the final match versus France with the magic help of the pills) but of course, FIVB didn´t disqualify them or at least sent them to the last OQ in Japan.


    I´m sad for those players who never used doping substances and they wouldn´t be able to participate in Tokyo 2020, but fo the rest of them...

    Quote from bvolley

    In the McClaren report published in 2016, there were at least 8 positive samples prior to London 2012 of Russian volleyball players.


    In the OQ played in Berlin 2015, Markin was tested positive with meldonium (he scored 17 points in the final match versus France with the magic help of the pills) but of course, FIVB didn´t disqualify them or at least sent them to the last OQ in Japan.


    I´m sad for those players who never used doping substances and they wouldn´t be able to participate in Tokyo 2020, but fo the rest of them...

    testing positive for meldonium before it was banned in 2016 should literally be a non issue. If it’s not a banned substance then players are allowed to use it, if they tested positive for it now that would be a big issue. People take lots of supplements that aren’t banned because they feel it helps them perform better, they can’t be expected to know if it will ever be banned in the future.


    I don’t support any athletes who dope, but it’s pretty awful to just ban a whole nation including the clean athletes. It’s not like an individual could have any control or stop state sponsored doping system. There has to be another way for athletes to prove that they don’t be dope, and those athletes should be allowed to participate in what they have worked their whole lives for

    It's not a blanket ban on all Russian athletes. I thought they made that part very clear. They can still go to the Olympics as "Olympic Athletes from Russia" like they did in Pyeongyang last year.


    Any Russian athlete that can prove that they're not connected to the doping scandal can and will be allowed to go but under a neutral flag.


    The ban effectively means there will be no Russian national anthem if they win. No marching with the Russian flag. No flag or the word " RUSSIA" on any uniforms...but there will definitely be Russian athletes competing in Tokyo.

    After the finals of the NCAA tomorrow, I’m taking a break from reading about volleyball. I’m not following Club ball this year except what I read on here. Hanging up my volleyball shoes and knee pads

    But I don’t want to miss the qualifier. Is there some place I can find out what dates they are?

    Quote from Maxwell

    After the finals of the NCAA tomorrow, I’m taking a break from reading about volleyball. I’m not following Club ball this year except what I read on here. Hanging up my volleyball shoes and knee pads

    But I don’t want to miss the qualifier. Is there some place I can find out what dates they are?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volleyball_at_the_2020_Summer_Olympics_–_Women%27s_qualification

    Quote from crovolley

    Really? In Germany? Wow


    In Croatia, Fed is in way better position with money. I think even the best days when it comes to finicans.

    . I don't if they are getting some money or not but before 2012 or even later players needed to pay their own flying tickets for some tournament :gone:

    The German volleyball federation is rather poor and trying hard to finance everything they are obliged to - for example VNL home matches, they are struggling all the time (for many decades now) to keep things up financially. The federation relies completely on the clubs, which pay in German league at least the players the complete year, so they are not behaving fairly to clubs neither players in this regard, but lack of sufficient money is a major reason for it. I know, that is hard to believe for non-Germans and/or non-insiders, but it is the sad truth.

    Two training matches between Germany and Netherlands today:


    GER A - NED A 1-2 (23-25, 20-25, 25-22)

    GER: Hanke 2, Drewniok 13, Orthmann 16, Geerties 9, Schölzel 8, Weitzel 8, Pogany L

    NED: Dijkema 0, Sloetjes 12, Meijners 11, Buijs 11, De Kruijf 9, Belien 6, Schoot L


    GER B - NED B 1-3 (25-23, 17-25, 21-25, 13-15)

    GER: Möllers 1, Vanjak 18, Poll 14, Stigrot 3, Gründing 9, Ambrosius 5, Bock L and Barber 3

    NED: Bongaerts 4, Daalderop 16, Jasper 13, Balkestein 12, Koolhaas 10, Lohuis 8, Knip L


    Lippmann and Plak did not play at all. The teams will play again tomorrow.