I am obviously disappointed in Canada’s drone spying. I find it hard to believe we are unique in doing this but that is not a defence. For me this is as disheartening as Ben Johnson in 1988.
Canada’s coach is out of the Olympics
Guessing that this will be a short Olympics for the Canadian Women’s team. They have had so many distractions over the past three years. Too bad they just can’t concentrate on playing soccer.
Fixed for tainted shame.
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Rick Westhead is a grossly underrated reporter who’s done incredible investigative work over the years. If he’s reporting this after just 3 days, he’s going to uncover a whole lot more stuff in the days to come.
Canada soccer is lucky it’s only dealing with FIFA, because at most it’ll be a $100,000 fine and a quiet don’t let anyone else know about this again berating.
It is possible that the women’s team will lose their 2021 Gold Medals. Not sure how they collect all those. Depends a lot on how much droning was happening then.
I think you would need to make a direct connection between the spying and that event.
Doping may provide an analogy. Carl Lewis failed doping tests at various times in his career but not before his Olympic medal events. He still has his medals: Ben Johnson doesn’t.
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Very interesting. I had always assumed that Carl Lewis was also a drug cheat but perhaps he wasn’t (the tested levels were too low to be performance enhancing). I might have to read the book.
Lewis was a documented drug cheat; just didn’t lose any medals over it. The Guardian article was kind to him.
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…and he still gets to ride in the boat with Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams.
I want to say the “30 For 30” featuring Johnson goes into how Lewis was busted in a drug test more than once, including at the USOT, and that there was decent evidence he was doping otherwise but it got swept under the rug.
Lewis had a better doctor/chemist than Johnson.
I was at an international gathering of Mercer consultants in Dallas in 1988 when Johnson failed his drug test after winning the Olympic 100 metres. Total deflation after the ecstasy of a Canadian finally winning the Olympic gold in the event. A kindly American colleague expressed my feelings perfectly when he came up to me at our evening reception and said “say it ain’t so Joe”.
A better publicist too by the sounds of it. Many Australians were saddened when Johnson fell from grace. Carl Lewis was seen as too full of himself at the time.
In 2021, John Herdman and Bev Priestman were respectively the Canadian Men’s and Women’s national soccer coaches. They are both from a small English city, Consett. Maybe spying is a way of life there?
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Maybe I should split some posts from this thread and make a Canada soccer spying thread. When I started the tangent I thought it was just a one off incident at the Olympics with the women’s team.
No need to set up a new thread. The Canadian team punishment just handed down probably ends the discussion. Team might as well go home now.
Wow, legit shocked that FIFA went nuclear on this. I figured they’d drag this out for months.
I thought it was a bit harsh. However I am ok with it as long as the next team caught cheating gets treated similarly. Can’t believe the Canadian team is unique.