A self-made bed

 By the time you read this, 15-year-old Russian figure skating phenom Kamila Valieva already may have won a gold medal. Or a silver or a bronze one.

If so, the International Olympic Committee already may have committed first-degree hypocrisy, too.

The IOC and the Chinese hosts, see, were very clear there would be no protests allowed in the Beijing Winter Games, although edicts like that rarely stop protests from happening. This doesn't stop the IOC from issuing such edicts, because the Olympics are supposed to be free of political taint, even if they never have been.

Of course, that doesn't mean the IOC can't stage its own protests.

That's pretty much the essence of the IOC's latest edict, which declared if Valieva won a medal, there would be no post-competition medal  ceremony. That's because the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Valieva could go ahead and compete, even though she failed a pre-Games drug test.

Now, a Russian failing a drug test is hardly stop-the-presses stuff. The Russians have been banned from competing under their own flag since 2017 because of their extensive, state-sponsored doping program. As a punishment, it's a complete joke.

And now it's the petard by which the IOC finds itself hoisted.

If the IOC was not the corrupt, money-grubbing entity it is, it would have banned the Russians from competing, period. And then Valieva wouldn't be an issue, because she wouldn't be in Beijing. And the IOC would not have been compelled, in a fit of pique, to say it was going to potentially screw two of the three medal winners in order to punish a third.

Hey, you had your chance to punish the Russians, boys and girls. It's a little late now to get all stern about it. You made your bed; the two blameless athletes you're potentially prepared to hurt did not. So lie in it, and ditch the protest.

Because you know what?

Somewhere Tommie Smith and John Carlos are shaking their heads and laughing at you.