Dark moment in our Olympic history

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) has made its choice: it will stand in solidarity with Russian athletes potentially deprived of participation in the Paris 2024 Games due to their country’s aggression against Ukraine, rather than with Ukrainian athletes who are victims of this aggression . Athletes who live – and sometimes die – under the bombs launched by the Kremlin.

Without a doubt, this is a dark moment in Canadian Olympic history.

In a statement to Duty last week, COC chief executive David Shoemaker explained that his organization was willing to “explore a path” that would allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paris Games, in the summer of 2024, under the banner neutral. The COC thus poses as a faithful lackey of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which aims for this objective.

Shoemaker added that “the decision to exclude athletes solely on the basis of their nationality goes against the principles that are at the heart of the Olympic Movement”, a claim that obviously goes well with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Did you know, Mr Shoemaker, that a young athlete was recently barred from competition forever on the basis of his nationality? His name is Volodymyr Androschuk, a Ukrainian decathlon champion who died last month in the Battle of Bakhmout.

He is not the first Ukrainian athlete victim of Russian aggression. At least 220 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have lost their lives since the onslaught began. Not to mention the bombed sports facilities and training that has become impossible, or almost.

But for the COC, attacking an independent country, and terrorizing its civilian population as Russia is doing, is not a sufficient attack on the principles “at the heart of the Olympic Movement”. This is not enough to send a clear message to the aggressors by denying their athletes access to the Games.

In the hope of justifying this lack of sensitivity to the human tragedy in Ukraine, the Canadian Olympic Committee wraps itself in the comforting notion of the “neutral athlete”.

Clearly, the Russian and Belarusian athletes in Paris would not be identified by their nationality and the anthem of their country would not sound after winning a gold medal. For the COC, this is a HUGE sanction against Russia, a ridiculous thesis in the current state of things.

The fiction of the “neutral athlete” will not hide the fact that they are Russian, as the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, recalled this week. Instead, she suggested that Russian athletes dissident from the Putin regime should join the delegation of refugee athletes. “We are not going to scroll a country that is attacking another and pretend that it does not exist,” she added.

Nor will this fiction prevent the Kremlin from co-opting the success of its athletes for political purposes. Rather, it will vindicate the Russian Foreign Ministry which, in a recent statement, argued that the attempt to restrict Russian athletes’ access to international sport is “doomed to failure”.

The Russian Minister of Sports added a layer of this this week, in an article published on the Insidethegames.biz site. Welcoming the position of the IOC, he used almost the same words as Shoemaker to express his position: “No one can be banned from competition because of their passport. It would be a direct violation of human rights. »

This is very embarrassing for the COC: its desire to admit Russians to Paris is great news for the Kremlin and a devastating right in the face of Ukraine.

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In all cases, the voice of reason has fortunately made itself heard. That of the Minister of Sports of Canada, Pascale St-Onge.

“Russian and Belarusian athletes should not be allowed to participate in international sports competitions,” she told The Press. We continue to show our solidarity with Ukraine, and I encourage the international sports community to do the same. »

Part of this “international community” plans to make itself heard loud and clear. Under the leadership of Poland and the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), a coalition could be formed to remind the IOC of decency.

Last week, Poland’s sports minister said he was hopeful of creating a group of 30 or 40 countries that would oppose the presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes in Paris.

A meeting of sports ministers from European countries will be held to discuss this issue. Denmark has already given its support to the process.

The IOC surely sees this initiative with a bad eye. And conveniently forgets that at least nine countries have already been excluded from the Games in the past, notably after the two world wars and later due to discriminatory policies.

* * *

If the IOC wins this showdown and the Russians are allowed to participate in the Paris Games, Ukraine plans to boycott them. It would still be incredible: the Russians would be at the Games, but not the Ukrainians.

Unfortunately, they face a major challenge to convince other countries to support the exclusion of Russian athletes.

The United States seems ready to live with the fiction of the “neutral athlete”. France hosts the Games and, regardless of the position of the mayor of Paris, will undoubtedly be cautious. Germany, long hesitant to send tanks to Ukraine, will hesitate to interfere in the matter. Without these “big” countries, the coalition may not be strong enough. And the Kremlin will win.

The IOC and the COC will then rejoice in the triumph of their pathetic conception of “Olympic values”.

Source: Reuters, The Washington PostFrance-Info, Insidethegames.biz