This year’s Olympic Games in Paris will taste bitter for many athletes. The IOC and international sports federations have decided to allow 31 athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate. Despite assurances of complete neutrality and meticulous selection, the chosen athletes do not promote peaceful opinions about the Putin regime. Notably, this year’s Games will see Russian-born Elena Kulichenko, the daughter of a Russian oligarch, carrying the flag of Cyprus. Her entire family received European passports for money.
- The issue is so sensitive that many athletes, despite initial declarations, eventually took back their statements to PostPravda.Info. Professional athletes and those involved in sports at the highest levels do not want to comment on the matter at all.
- A total of 15 athletes from Russia and 16 from Belarus have been allowed to participate in this year’s most important sporting event.
- The Belarusian Olympic contingent includes rower Yevgeny Zalatyi, a Junior Sergeant of the Belarusian Armed Forces, and swimmer Anastasia Shkurdai, a representative of the Belarusian Armed Forces Sports Committee.
- Ukrainian-born tennis player Elena Vesnina, representing Russia, has “liked” posts by Russian soldiers on social media showcasing videos and photos of killing Ukrainians. She also liked posts with the pro-war symbol “Z.”
Surprising Decision by the IOC
One of the points of the IOC’s mission statement on their webpage states:
to take action to strengthen the unity of the Olympic Movement, to protect its independence, to maintain and promote its political neutrality, and to preserve the autonomy of sport;
This year, the Olympic Games are being held in Paris, often called the heart of Europe. Let’s recall some widely known facts accompanying this year’s event. Fact one: a bloody war is raging in Eastern Europe, a war the world hasn’t seen since 1939. Fact two: in February 2022, Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine. Fact three: he did so with the help of Belarusians. Fact four, unfortunately, is often forgotten: for two years and five months, Russian troops have been committing murders, war crimes, and illegally taking over independent Ukrainian territory.
Initially, the sports world also reacted. After Russia invaded Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from international sporting events. Almost all sports federations worldwide made the same decision, except for one sport: tennis.
Despite the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) decision to exclude representatives from Russia and Belarus, private organizations ATP and WTA allowed citizens of these countries to compete under a neutral flag. Wimbledon organizers in 2022 also decided to exclude players with Russian and Belarusian passports. In response to these actions, ATP and WTA fined the Lawn Tennis Association 1.5 million pounds and stripped Wimbledon participants of ranking points. Thus, Wimbledon suffered for its decision.
When the time came for international sports federations to organize Olympic qualification tournaments, some decided to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete.
In January 2023, the IOC announced its intention to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete at the Games under neutral flags. The idea of “neutrality” was borrowed from the presentation of Russian and Belarusian tennis players at ATP, WTA, and Grand Slam events.
What do the Polish Olympians think?
– My opinion about Russians has stayed the same for two years. Some athletes support all this, train in Russia, and are even members of military clubs. Just because the media are now silent about Ukraine doesn’t mean the conflict doesn’t exist. I am absolutely against their participation in the Olympic Games. They must be held accountable for what they do – said Beijing Olympic champion rower Marek Kolbowicz in an interview with PostPravda.Info.
– I’ll put it this way: they are people without honor. Either I believe in what my country does and compete under my flag, or I compete under a neutral flag. But I still know that I am connected to what my country is doing. Saying otherwise is absurd – said Paweł Rańda, Beijing Olympic rowing silver medalist, about Russian and Belarusian athletes trying to distance themselves from the war in Ukraine.
– International sports federations are independent bodies responsible for the qualification system. They are also members of the Olympic Movement. So if some international federations agreed to allow individual athletes to compete in the qualifiers, the IOC had to follow suit – explained one Olympian close to the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl), who asked to remain anonymous.
“Neutral” athletes at the Olympic Games
A total of 15 athletes from Russia and 16 from Belarus have been allowed to participate in this year’s most important sporting event. In March, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced that a three-person panel would review qualified athletes from Russia and Belarus to meet several criteria established specifically for this occasion. Athletes actively supporting the war, still called a “special military operation” by Moscow, who have contracts with the military or security agencies, will not be allowed to participate.
– Some international federations allowed them to compete in the qualifiers, and some did not. The PKOl (Polish Olympic Committee) was against it from the beginning – informs a PostPravda source who competed in several Olympic Games and wants to remain anonymous.
There have been many discussions about whether Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games, and Ukrainian athletes have expressed particular concern. Much has also been said about “sports diplomacy.” However, the IOC Executive Board ruled that punishing athletes solely based on their passports would be “unfair.”
– Several Ukrainian weightlifters have died during the war. Ukrainians do not have the conditions to train, and that is unfair. I believe that they (Russians and Belarusians) should not be allowed to compete in the Games – says Olympian, weightlifter, and board member of the European Weightlifting Federation EWF, Mariusz Jędra.
The Polish Olympic Committee tried to fight international decisions, but…
At the end of April 2024, Radosław Piesiewicz was elected president of the Polish Olympic Committee. The organization’s new head advocated for excluding Russians and Belarusians from the Games.
(…) we need to consider how to exclude Russians and Belarusians from the Olympic Games and then make decisions with the entire sports community on what to do next – said Piesiewicz in an interview with the weekly DoRzeczy.
Ultimately, these proposals were not implemented, and as we know, athletes from Russia and Belarus will be able to compete in the Games as neutrals, without flags, emblems, or anthems in case of victory in any discipline, and only in individual competitions. They will also not appear in the parade during the opening ceremony.
Athletes participating in the competitions in Paris cannot speak to the media due to the so-called Olympic silence, but former Olympians widely comment on the controversy surrounding Russia and Belarus’s participation. They are not prohibited from speaking, though not everyone wants to be named. This shows how serious the matter is. Polish athletes who wanted to talk repeated it like a mantra.
– I have no doubts and will repeat it: they all should be unconditionally excluded, if only because their countries absolutely do not represent the values that the Games carry — fair competition, fair play, etc. You can’t ignore or pretend that the recent attack on the Kyiv Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital didn’t exist. Can you really look away and go about your daily business? I can’t, adds Paweł Rańda.
A trace in the Internet remains forever
What if it is confirmed that some of the athletes carefully selected by the IOC and international federations support Putin’s and Lukashenko’s actions? On July 8, Global Rights Compliance presented a shocking report on “neutral athletes” who will compete in the Olympics.
In addition to detailed descriptions, the report included screenshots from social media and relevant documentation confirming inappropriate behavior. The organization tracked likes, posts, retweets, and shares of all athletes on the IOC list. The evidence included in the report comes from the X platform, Instagram, TikTok, as well as official Russian sports federation sites and local Russian media.
According to the Global Rights Compliance report, Moscow-born 30-year-old cyclist Tamara Dronova should be held accountable for at least two violations: ties to Russian national security agencies and pro-war behavior in public places. Dronova is a member of the All-Russian Physical Culture and Sports Society “Dynamo,” closely associated with Vladimir Putin himself. Additionally, the “Dynamo” sports club is an institution created for military training and physical preparation of Russian security agencies. Furthermore, in 2016, Dronova participated in the national championships held in illegally annexed Sevastopol in Crimea, occupied by Russia since 2014.
Kayaker Olesia Romasenko is a member of the Central Military Sports Club (CSKA), a Russian sports institution subordinate to the Minister of Defense.
Ukrainian-born tennis player Elena Vesnina, representing Russia, liked posts by Russian soldiers on social media showcasing videos and photos of killing Ukrainians. She also liked posts with the pro-war symbol “Z.”
The Belarusian Olympic contingent includes rower Yevgeny Zalatyi, a Junior Sergeant of the Belarusian Armed Forces, and swimmer Anastasia Shkurdai, a representative of the Belarusian Armed Forces Sports Committee.
According to the Global Rights Compliance report, rower Yauheni Zalaty is also a Belarusian Armed Forces Sports Committee member, a Belarusian institution directly subordinate to the Ministry of Defense.
To top it off, Elena Kulichenko, representing Cyprus in the high jump, is set to carry the Cypriot flag during Friday’s opening ceremony despite being Russian by birth. Her father is Russian oligarch Alexei Kulichenko,
The Olympics issue is sensitive and complex
– I once had a good colleague from Russia. We competed together in world championships, climbed the career ladder in national federations together, and talked a lot about world issues. But once he told me that “Ukraine has no statehood.” Then, I knew I had no one to discuss these issues with anymore. They really must believe in that, wonders Mariusz Jędra.
– We hoped until the end that common sense and the desire to organize full-fledged Olympic Games with the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus would prevail over political intrigues – a representative of the Russian Judo Federation told Reuters.
The problem is very complex. The IOC is not solely responsible for this decision but also the entities of international federations and the entire Olympic Movement. What we have described in this text is just the tip of the iceberg and the information we could access that was not shrouded in silence.
Meanwhile, athletes from Russia and Belarus almost openly say that they see the war in Ukraine as a “political intrigue” and mock its victims.
In response to all these voices and the above-mentioned report, the IOC issued a brief statement stating its refusal to exclude Russians and Belarusians from the Games.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, more than 450 top Ukrainian athletes have died in the war.
Photo by bloodyolympics.com
Read more at PostPravda.Info:
Piotr Kashuvara straight from Donbas: “Things are very bad on the frontline, but Ukraine still has a chance.”
