Icarus (Documentary)

[carrrnuttt]

I searched, and there was no thread in here about this Netflix documentary.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/icarus_2017/

If you have Netflix, here's the direct link: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80168079

It's a pretty interesting look into not just the heart of doping, but how Russia handles whistleblowers.

Here's a pretty good summary by one of the top critics:

A real-life absurdist thriller that, in its electric coverage of one Russian scandal, can't help but illuminate another ongoing one.

 

[AsUpRoDiGy]

Will have to check it out. Thanks for bringing it up!

 

[carrrnuttt]

Also, here's commentary from one of the Canadian athletes that still finds himself having to compete against the Russians, as well as another athlete that eventually got awarded a Bronze and Gold when it was discovered that athletes ahead of her on the podium were doping: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/russia-doping-lumsden-girard-1.4243509

When Canadian Olympian Jesse Lumsden watched a newly released documentary that explores the recent Russian doping scandal, he became irate all over again.

"I couldn't sleep. It made me sick to my stomach," the bobsledder says.

Filmmaker Bryan Fogel's Icarus revisits Russia's state-sponsored doping program, brought to light more than a year ago when an investigation led by a Canadian law professor, Richard McLaren, confirmed evidence of widespread cheating by Russian athletes and officials that included members of the country's government.

Not as good as gold

If there's one Canadian Olympian who knows the devastation of doping all too well, it's weightlifter Christine Girard, who competed in the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2012 London Games.

In 2008 she placed fourth, just steps away from the podium. In 2012, she finally broke through and placed third.

Those results changed last summer. Girard found out she'd not only be upgraded to a bronze medal for her 2008 performance because of a positive test by the silver medallist, but also a gold for 2012 because of a pair of positive tests by the athletes above her on the podium.

Still, it's not the same as winning the medal on the spot.

"All those four years leading up to London were really hard for me," she says. "It shouldn't have been that way."

Had Girard been awarded the bronze in 2008, she would have been Canada's first medallist in Beijing. She says it would have changed almost everything in her life — from sponsorship opportunities to publicity, she could have had a very different road. Instead, she remained virtually unknown.

"I had to train in an unheated carport," she says. "How much opportunity that would have given me is hard to know, but it would have been so different."

 

[Shaggy]

Also, here's commentary from one of the Canadian athletes that still finds himself having to compete against the Russians, as well as another athlete that eventually got awarded a Bronze and Gold when it was discovered that athletes ahead of her on the podium were doping: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/russia-doping-lumsden-girard-1.4243509

That has got to stink. How it could have changed her life if it weren't for the 2 doping athletes.