It’s a treacherous time to be a sports fan.

The Olympic Games is just around the corner and already the stench from athletics is over-powering. Every time someone pokes about, a doper falls out of a tree. Drug-taking is ubiquitous with the Russians the chosen baddies of the month.

Do they dope more than others? Probably not. But it’s their turn to front up as the layers get pulled off their subterfuge.

In less than a month from now the International Amateur Athletics Federation will rule on Russia’s suspension from international competition. Given that it is highly unlikely that their anti-doping measures will bear up to scrutiny, Russia might well find themselves out in the cold ahead of the Rio Games.

If that seems unfathomable, consider the alternative – a group of possibly ropey athletes being allowed to compete, much to the world’s chagrin.

Russia is a super power in geo-politics and in sport, so the pressure on the IAAF will be immense. Too soft and they’ll be slammed, too hard and they’ll have an angry Vladimir Putin breathing fire.

Putin and his cohorts, who already suffer a persecution complex, will huff and puff, but the evidence against Russia’s athletes is damning. Indeed, a report in the New York Times last week blew the lid off a chilling state-sanctioned doping scheme at the Sochi Winter Olympics that had all the elements of a Cold War spy thriller.

The disgraced former boss of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory admitted conspiring with its secret service to supply drugs to athletes and swap dirty samples for clean ones through a hole in a wall.

If this seems a tad dramatic, consider the case of Caster Semenya, who may be the best female athlete in SA sports history. Officially, she is a 2012 Olympic and 2011 world championship 800m silver medalist, but what the record books don’t indicate – yet – is that the winner of both races was a fraud. The World Anti-Doping Agency has recommended a life ban for Mariya Savinova, but the gold medals are still in her possession.

Even if Semenya is named champion retrospectively, glory would be delayed and diluted.

As she said, “Even if they crown me Olympic champion, it is just an award from them I never celebrated. It wouldn’t mean anything for me, it would be great for my country but for me as an athlete I cannot entertain the thought. There was someone that finished first in the Olympics, whether she doped or not, I came second and that will never change.”

It’s a miserable response from one of the world’s elite runners, and perfectly understandable.

It gets worse. Midweek brought the catastrophic news that 31 athletes from 12 countries failed doping tests from the 2008 Olympics, which emerged after re-testing of old samples.

Our near neighbours Ethiopia and Kenya are also walking the doping high-wire.

Kenya recently missed a deadline to prove its anti-doping measures were sufficient, plus there’s the small matter of 40 of its athletes having tested positive for doping since the 2012 Olympic Games. Something is foul in Kenyan athletics.

Up the road, in Ethiopia, the situation is little better with a slew of positive tests in recent months. The World Anti-Doping Agency has also instructed Ethiopia’s officials to harden up their anti-doping measures.

It’s only fair to mention at this point that South Africa’s lone testing laboratory, in Bloemfontein, has been suspended on account of quality standards.

The greater problem for athletics is how poor the leadership has been in this regard. The IAAF, under Sebastian Coe, has underwhelmed with its handling of the matter. Coe’s claim that he never knew about the culture of doping within his sport is disingenuous.

As the beating heart of the IAAF, how could he not have known?

I expect we’ll be hearing a lot more from the Russians. Already we’ve had a heavyweight championship fight called off this weekend after the Russian challenger tested positive for meldonium, just months after Maria Sharapova was also bust.

Rio is under severe pressure to host an efficient and memorable Olympic Games. The fear is that the great city can’t avoid the messy clutches of the drug fiends who will doubtless be among the medalists – whether the Russians compete or not. – © Sunday Tribune