Russia has earned a 2018 Olympic ban

Russia just lost out to the United States in the Olympic medal standings . . . for the 2014 Winter Games. The action, nearly four years after the fact, is just the latest fallout from Moscow’s massive doping abuses.

That scandal should see Vladimir Putin’s athletes banned completely from February’s Olympics in South Korea. But will the International Olympic Committee’s executive board have the guts to do the right thing come Dec. 5?

The IOC on Wednesday banned four more Russian athletes for life, ordering the forfeit of two medals from the 2014 competitions in Sochi. Along with other forfeits for six other Russian dopers, Putin’s Sochi total is down to 27 medals (from an original 33).

And it’s entirely possible that the other medals are tainted, too.

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