On the IOC Decision...

I'm just going to put it out there at the beginning of the post that my views aren't necessarily those of the majority of the gymternet on the whole Russia ban debacle.

Personally, I see both sides of the argument.

Against the ban:
It's not fair to punish the clean athletes. There's no evidence that the gymnasts doped, so they should be allowed to compete.

For the ban:
Yes, there's no evidence that the gymnasts doped, but they still haven't undergone legitimate drug testing for two years. Also, this is an institutional problem in Russia, with the Russian government in on the cover-up, so Russia has to be banned entirely to adequately punish those actions.

Personally, I think the IOC decision was too lenient. I agree with the head of the American doping agency when he said the IOC "failed to take decisive leadership". I think the IOC should have taken it upon themselves to determine which sports would be allowed to compete, and my position is that Russia should not be allowed to send athletes from any sport where a doping cover-up was found, at least on a large-scale level- maybe 10+ athletes? Not to mention the whole "federations have 12 days to determine eligibility" mess.

The bigger issue I have with the ruling is that the Russian athletes will still be allowed to compete under the Russian flag. I support Russian athletes who don't show any evidence of doping being allowed to compete, but I think they should be competing under the Olympic flag with Russia not being credited for any of the medals its athletes earn. With its athletes being allowed to compete under the Russian flag, Russia will still be rewarded after being found guilty of systematic abuse of doping testing, when it really is the Russian doping system that needs to be punished. I think allowing Russian athletes to compete but requiring them to compete under the Olympic flag and not the Russian flag would have done a much better job of being fair to the clean athletes while still punishing the Russian system for its corruption.