A lot has been going on with Russia leading up to this years Olympic games in Rio. It was recently reported that Russian athletes had been found doping since after the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. It was also discovered that this was state-sponsored doping. Banning Russia from the Olympics would mean a lot to other countries and it would greatly affect the Olympic games as a whole.

As of right now, Russia's track and field athletes have been banned from competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. However, all this talk about doping puts the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in a tough spot. If they completely ban Russian athletes, they take away one the most dominant Olympic countries, but if they do not ban them, then it looks like the IOC has gone soft on doping allegations. With both of these outcomes, there is good and bad.

One of the good outcomes would be that it would give some other countries a chance at medals. It would give the United States and China even more chances at just dominating the medal count but it would also give countries like Germany, France, and Italy a chance at moving up in the medal rankings. Banning the track and field athletes has already given Jamaica a chance at being right behind the United States in the medal count.

A bad outcome for the IOC if the Russians are not banned is that more countries might try and dope so that they can get ahead. If this does happen and the athletes and countries get caught, the IOC will not be able to ban all of them because of Russia. Everyone is watching the IOC to see what will happen with Russia.

Most countries are probably hoping that all Russian athletes get banned because that is one less person these athletes will have to compete against. On the other hand Russians are hoping they do not get banned because for some this would be the only Olympics they can go to and for others they want redemption from the last Olympic games. All of these scenarios put a lot of pressure on the IOC to make the right decision in punishing athletes for doping.

I, for one, know that Russia is a staple country in the Olympics and them getting banned could mean a drop in ratings from viewers for this years Olympics, especially in Russia. IOC, make the decision you feel most comfortable with.