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There are always a few worries ahead of any Olympics. Will the venues be ready? Is the athletes’ village a bit crap? Will there be a terror threat? That sort of thing. But this one is something else. Those questions are all still relevant, but the shadow cast by Russia and doping is on a different scale. Plus there’s Zika, and it’s quite literally a shitshow.

So here are three takes on it. First, a whistleblower gives an account of what it is like to be the ultimate party pooper. No prizes for guessing that it’s not much fun. Then Dan Jones in the Standard delivers what many people are thinking – that the IOC are spineless, gutless, and so forth.

However, Bloomberg’s Leonid Bershidsky gives a typically counter-view, suggesting that any Russians at the Games will be the cleanest of all, and banning Russia anyway wouldn’t work: “anyone running a similar system with a crooked laboratory will just make doubly sure there are no leaks. Blanket bans would only make sense if several countries or federations had been caught.” Not popular, but it’s a view. Meanwhile, here’s a history of doping in sport

ELSEWHERE

Will Roger Federer win another major? The stats say that it’s really unlikely.

The Tour de France 2016 in charts – everything you need to know.

Asian tours are a big part of Premier League club’s commercial strategy. So this kind of farce can’t be good for business.

It’s always hard to compare across eras in any sport, but the Economist have a very good go at golf.

That’s it – adios.