On Monday’s table talk, we had the interesting topic of how Russia cheated in the last Olympics and the consequences that followed. This year, you could see in the opening ceremony that Russia’s team wore plain, grey tracksuits, and instead of presenting their flag like other countries, they waved the flag with the Olympics logo. But why?

This was a consequence of their country cheating in the last Olympics. Information was released on how their “doping” was covered up by the Russain government themselves by switching their contaminated urine samples with clean ones that were made long beforehand. Even the person who was responsible to find any possibility of contamination for Russia was part of the scheme. But was this enough? Since this information was found right before the start of Sochi’s Olympics, the board decided to let each sport to decide whether or not to allow Russia to participate in the games. All but two sporting events allowed Russia to participate regardless.

However, many people think that this punishment wasn’t enough. Some believe they should have a “probation” from Olympic events, but we must also keep in mind that for Olympic participants, this is something they train for most of their life and that they only have a short window of peak performance before their performances start declining. What if that specific (or this years) Olympics was that window for them? It is always important to put yourself in the shoes of an Olympian, as one’s perspective can drastically change regarding this issue.