As day eight closed in the Olympic games, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team had reached an astonishing 36 medals.
Such an impressive medal tally at the halfway stage of the games bodes very well for them. An albeit rudimentary projection of doubling that total to take them through to the end of the games would put them up to 72, their best performance since Athens 2004.
Given the extent of the doping that has been reported in each of the subsequent Summer Olympics, if Russian athletes are clean, this represents a fantastic return to form for the former sporting superpower, who will have their eyes on a top three finish overall.
Why I am able compare this team's athletes to former performances by the Russian Nation, when it was simply referred to as "Russia", is because of the truly pitiful nature of their punishment for these Olympics. This team is Russia in all-but name. The pundits know it, the athletes know it, and so do you and I.
Indeed it is that name that perfectly epitomises just how much of a non-punishment they have been dealt. The name "Russian Olympic Committee" does not just make it incredibly obvious who they are competing for (and firmly attaches their identity to their nation), but it allows them to compete under the flag of an organisation that was not only complicit, but actively involved in the state sponsored doping programme of 2008-2014 (and possibly beyond).
As a sanction, this represents an improvement from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on their approach to 2016. That year, all that happened was for Russia's track and field team to be banned, and this at least prevents anyone competing under the flag.
However, that would be to give the IOC far too much credit for both punishments. In 2016 it was the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, now known simply as "World Athletics") that banned track and field athletes, with the IOC doing absolutely nothing to further punish Russia despite overwhelming forensic evidence of state sponsored doping in the previous two games and a WADA (World Anti-doping Agency) recommendation.
And this time around it would appear that, whilst they haven't done nothing, they have done the absolute bare minimum. For this Olympics, WADA banned Russia themselves - as they did for every major sporting event taking place up to the end of 2023 - and yet Russians have been able to don the name of the Committee that sends their athletes anyway.
It really is the next best thing to just being called Russia. Indeed if you look at the medal table for the previous Olympics on Wikipedia the very first sentence of the article states:
"The following medal table is a list of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and one non-NOC team ranked by the number of gold medals won by their athletes during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro".
And though the name at the Winter Olympics of 2018, "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR), seems to have been even less of a punishment than this one, it didn't give their shady (at best) national committee the credit this one does. Furthermore the ROC themselves were suspended from any involvement, and though Russian athletes were still able to compete in some team events, administration and coordination was massively hampered by this, as the team collapsed from 1st to 13th in the medal table.
Immediately after those Olympics, the ROC were reinstated. The lawyer for Grigory Rodchenkov - mastermind behind Russia's doping who confessed all having fled to the United States - described it as "weakness in the face of evil", and being known as the ROC at these Olympics seems a major vote of confidence from the IOC.
Was this some kind of reward for their improve conduct at those games? Well given the fact that OAR accounted for half of all positive tests at PyeongChang 2018 - and were the only country to have a medal stripped for doping - it is hard to see why they would be guerdoned for it.
Ah, maybe this explains it...
Pictures like the one above can be unfair. People in high places meet each other all the time, but is clear from both Western and Russian media that Thomas Bach, head of the IOC, and Vladimir Putin, Russian dictator, have good relations.
Now is not the time to raise or speculate about any questions of corruption, but although Bach is entitled to personal friendships, the fact that a former lawyer would be friends with a murderous tyrant should be challenged, and that is before mentioning the unquestionable conflict of interest of some kind when Bach is the final decision maker on Russia's place in Olympic games.
The result is a punishment by WADA that has been watered down to its absolute minimum by the IOC. Russia's team still has its complete identity and the administrative arm of the ROC to guide it through the games. Effectively, they've lost a flag and anthem, but feel no less Russian, and if anything the martyring of Russian symbols has merely served to motivate their athletes.
Whether in politics, sport or even war and famine, Russians are known for their defiance in adversity and ability to produce their best when their backs are against the wall. By kicking the hornets nest without damaging it, or perhaps more aptly, ROCking the boat, the combination of WADA strength and IOC weakness has emboldened Russia to produce an immensely impressive start.
The ROC are in the top 10 for the most athletes competing in these games, there is little doubt they will match that performance in the medal table, and should be in the top 5. When they return to Russia, they will receive a heroes' welcome, and by the time of the next Summer Olympics, they will once again be known as Russia.
Their returning athletes at Paris 2024 will likely be referred to as having competed for Russia at Tokyo 2020 as the media forgets the protocol of having to say ROC, and once again they will send a large contingent of athletes who will no doubt dominate in a number of events.
And, much like cycling's doping problem, a couple of individual scapegoats will take the fall before the cycle starts all over again.
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