Documentary Project Reflection - Icarus
I
decided to watch the documentary Icarus. I chose Icarus because I am
somewhat of a sports fan and I also wanted to watch something with a
little less at stake than the rest of the documentaries. I do enjoy
watching films on the major human events of the world but I don't think I
was prepared for the emotional investment that some of the other films
seemed to illicit.
From the beginning of this documentary I was kind of shocked at the level of cheating that goes on in sports and how athletes get away with it for so long. One scene from the beginning that really stuck out to me was when Lance Armstrong said in an interview when he was denying he ever "doped", he said he was tested at least 150 times and every test came out clean. How was that possible? Why are there even testing procedures and even many labs in place if they don't work? This was pretty shocking because so many people put so much effort into making sure athletes don't try to gain an advantage, but all their work still doesn't catch them. All major sports pay people to test athletes, they take doping and the use of performance enhancing drugs very seriously, but the athletes still find ways around it, and surprisingly sometimes with the help of the scientists trained to catch them.
What really surprised me was when the investigation into the Russian Olympic team really started heating up. Grigory Rodchenkov became a focal point in this documentary as he was helping Bryan with his testosterone regimen. Grigory is the Russian scientist is charge of the Russian anti doping lab. During the period when he and Bryan were in contact someone in Russia blew the whistle on the Russian Olympic teams use of PEDs during the 2014 Sochi Olympics. All the sudden Grigory became the topic of this giant, worldwide news story. Bryan was right in the middle of working with this man as he began to come under heavy pressure from his country, the world, and the World Anti Doping Agency.
Grigory started to fear for his life and fled to the United States with the help of his new friend Bryan. It was interesting because Bryan was unwittingly thrust into the situation by befriending Grigory to learn more about doping in cycling. He was now part of something much larger. After Grigory made it to the US the documentary production team had been in contact with the same lawyer representing Edward Snowden. This was serious. In the end the World Anti Doping Agency and the IIOC banned many Russian athletes from competing in the following Olympics. The documentary makes claims that the scandal goes all the up to the very top government officials in Russia. They constantly denied these claims, but it felt so much like the current political climate today. I tend to not believe anything the Russian government says because there always seems to be highly credible agencies claiming to have evidence of scandalous behavior by the Russians but they always seem to deny them no matter what. It's a playbook that the Putin regime stands by.
I began to think more about the Russians world plans on a whole more than just their attempt to cheat their way to Olympic glory. This was a very interesting look into a country that feels they have something to prove to the rest of the world.
From the beginning of this documentary I was kind of shocked at the level of cheating that goes on in sports and how athletes get away with it for so long. One scene from the beginning that really stuck out to me was when Lance Armstrong said in an interview when he was denying he ever "doped", he said he was tested at least 150 times and every test came out clean. How was that possible? Why are there even testing procedures and even many labs in place if they don't work? This was pretty shocking because so many people put so much effort into making sure athletes don't try to gain an advantage, but all their work still doesn't catch them. All major sports pay people to test athletes, they take doping and the use of performance enhancing drugs very seriously, but the athletes still find ways around it, and surprisingly sometimes with the help of the scientists trained to catch them.
What really surprised me was when the investigation into the Russian Olympic team really started heating up. Grigory Rodchenkov became a focal point in this documentary as he was helping Bryan with his testosterone regimen. Grigory is the Russian scientist is charge of the Russian anti doping lab. During the period when he and Bryan were in contact someone in Russia blew the whistle on the Russian Olympic teams use of PEDs during the 2014 Sochi Olympics. All the sudden Grigory became the topic of this giant, worldwide news story. Bryan was right in the middle of working with this man as he began to come under heavy pressure from his country, the world, and the World Anti Doping Agency.
Grigory started to fear for his life and fled to the United States with the help of his new friend Bryan. It was interesting because Bryan was unwittingly thrust into the situation by befriending Grigory to learn more about doping in cycling. He was now part of something much larger. After Grigory made it to the US the documentary production team had been in contact with the same lawyer representing Edward Snowden. This was serious. In the end the World Anti Doping Agency and the IIOC banned many Russian athletes from competing in the following Olympics. The documentary makes claims that the scandal goes all the up to the very top government officials in Russia. They constantly denied these claims, but it felt so much like the current political climate today. I tend to not believe anything the Russian government says because there always seems to be highly credible agencies claiming to have evidence of scandalous behavior by the Russians but they always seem to deny them no matter what. It's a playbook that the Putin regime stands by.
I began to think more about the Russians world plans on a whole more than just their attempt to cheat their way to Olympic glory. This was a very interesting look into a country that feels they have something to prove to the rest of the world.
Comments
Post a Comment