Andrei Arshavin reckons if people don’t take the prohibited drugs, there’s no way they can meet the demands of a few sports.
In Arshavin’s view, there are two types of sports, Cyclic and non-cyclic. Non-cyclic are the ones where similar movement is not needed all the time, like in soccer, a player doesn’t always move the same way. He can take different positions at different times depending on how his opponent is going. So, the drugs are not necessarily needed for the performance in such sports. You can manage without drugs as well.
But, in cyclic sports, the athletes have to move certain portions of their bodies in a certain way over and over again, like if somebody is a cyclist; his legs are moving in a circle all the time. Similarly, there is a definite way of movement in swimming too and such sports are far tougher in comparison to the non-cyclic sports and in such sports, to achieve the standard that has been achieved so far is inhumane without the drugs. That’s why it’s naïve to believe that only some athletes use the drugs and the others don’t. Almost all of them use the drugs.
Arshavin sees the recent crackdown on Russian athletes suspiciously and hints that it might be a plan against Russia to isolate it in sporting world as a few decisions the country has taken related to international politics of late have been disliked by some other countries.
A number of athletes from Russia couldn’t take part in this year’s Olympics as they were found to have used the prohibited drugs. In fact, there was a stage when it was looking like Russia would be banned as a whole and none of their athletes would be given permission to compete. However, the IOC took a softer stand and did not slap the blanket ban.