Thus, the Canadian Olympic Committee now says it is open to exploring a return of Russian athletes to the Paris Olympics in two years.
It’s as pitiful as it is embarrassing.
And the saddest thing about all of this is that almost no one fell out of their chairs when they heard the news.
Because already last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had made it known that it was studying this possibility.
Yet, let’s be clear: Russians’ return to the Olympics is unacceptable until the war in Ukraine is over.
This flirtation with Moscow dates from last fall. The ineffable President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, then began a contortionist number worthy of the Cirque du Soleil aimed at reintegrating Russia through the back door.
He had, for example, mentioned a neutral flag for Russian athletes – as was the case after a historic doping scandal – and the possibility of admitting only those who have “distanced themselves from the regime” of Vladimir Putin.
Now, there is talk of welcoming athletes who have “not actively supported” Russian aggression in Ukraine.
If the trend continues, the closer we get to the date of the Games, the more the position of the IOC will soften.
Will we end up inviting the Russian president to participate in the opening ceremony, a shot?
Because the more the weeks pass, the more the leaders of the Olympic movement behave like King Putin’s jesters.
Let us look for a moment at the words of the Secretary General of the Canadian Olympic Committee, David Shoemaker, reported by The duty. Excluding athletes “solely on the basis of their nationality goes against the principles that are at the heart of the Olympic movement”, he argued.
Devil ! If this is where he really wants to lead the debate, he will be beaten hands down.
Would he go back to read the Olympic Charter he would not profess such nonsense.
It states that “the goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humanity with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with preserving human dignity”.
Messrs. Bach and Shoemaker are going to have a lot of trouble explaining to us how welcoming Russian athletes would make it possible to achieve this objective.
This dirty war is no ordinary conflict to which Western democracies can respond with a shrug of the shoulders or half measures.
It is a war of aggression, the first in Europe since the Second World War, based on absurd and inadmissible pretexts.
It is also a conflict based on the imperialist ambitions of a world power which has decided to annex a neighbor, ignoring the territorial integrity of a European democracy.
A useless war where the barbaric acts of the Russians are multiplying, so much so that the creation of a special tribunal to judge the war crimes committed is being considered.
As far as we know, Messrs. Bach and Shoemaker, Olympism has nothing to do with butchery.
It is clear that it was the West’s weakness in the face of Russia that prompted Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine. Now, the leaders of the Olympic movement are embodying this weakness.
For what ? Largely for the money. We are courting Russia this time as we have never stopped bowing to China, regardless of the behavior of the regime in power. The Winter Games in Beijing last year showed us this once again.
“It is obvious that any neutral flag of Russian sportsmen is stained with blood,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who tried to put some common sense in this debate which does not hold water.
He is right.
Some will say that athletes have nothing to do with war, but that is to forget that the Olympic Games are as much a sporting event as a political one.
And politically, the situation could not be clearer.
While Russian soldiers massacre Ukrainians to satisfy a despot’s dreams of grandeur, the idea of allowing Russian athletes to participate in an Olympic Games to be held on the same continent as this war is untenable.