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Ginebra (AFP) – An outright ban on Russians and Belarusians from world sport as the price to pay for the invasion of Ukraine: The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) spectacular recommendation this Monday is historic in character for an organization normally inclined to stay aloof from politics.
This triggered a wave of similar bans: exclusion from the World Cup, suspension of World Rugby and the International Ice Hockey Federation, cancellation of badminton or swimming tournaments…
The most prominent decision was that of FIFA which, shortly after the IOC resolution, announced the exclusion of Russia from the 2022 World Cup, a planetary event that it organized in 2018.
Earlier, the highest body in world football had indicated that it was in “advanced talks” to take this step after Russia’s potential rivals for the qualifying playoffs (Poland, Czech Republic and Sweden) refused to play against them.
But before that, the IOC executive commission recommended this Monday not to invite Russians and Belarusians to sports competitions, after the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
Noting that many athletes from Ukraine are prevented from competing due to the attack by Russian troops on their country, the IOC Executive Board “recommends international sports federations and organizers of sports events not to invite or allow the participation of athletes and Russian and Belarusian official representatives at international competitions”.
South Africa, Yugoslavia, Russia
If the IOC were massively followed by the international federations, Russia would join Slobodan Milosevic’s Yugoslavia and Apartheid South Africa in the history of the great pariahs of international sport.
In addition, as a symbolic measure, the IOC announced in the same statement that it withdraws the Olympic Order from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Stanislav Pozdniakov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee, estimated in a statement that the IOC’s decision “goes against the regulations and the Olympic charter, first of all the spirit of the Olympic movement, whose vocation is to unite and not divide, especially when It’s about athletes or the equality of participants in the Olympic movement”.
The IOC, in any case, specified that if “for organizational or legal reasons” it was not possible to prevent the participation of Russian athletes, it asks that they not be “authorized to participate like Russia or Belarus.”
The issue is particularly urgent for the Paralympic Games, which start in Beijing on Friday.
“When, in very extreme circumstances”, adopting these measures, “is not possible in the short term for organizational or legal reasons, the IOC leaves the organization to find its own way”, reiterating its “full support for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and to the Games”.
The IOC maintains its recommendation not to organize competitions on Russian soil.
Breaking its traditional demand for athlete neutrality, the IOC welcomed “the many calls for peace launched by athletes, sports officials and members of the global Olympic community. The IOC particularly admires and supports calls for peace from Russian athletes”.
Russian opponents
The tennis player Andrey Rublev, the ice hockey player Alex Ovechkin or the cyclist Pavel Sivakov clearly showed their opposition to the war started by their country.
But now they are threatened with paying a heavy professional price if their international federations follow the IOC’s recommendations. For international footballer Fedor Smolov this is already the case.
Without waiting for the IOC, several countries had already expressed their rejection of the presence of Russians on their territory to compete in competitions.
The Champions League final was withdrawn from Saint Petersburg by UEFA, which is close to breaking its sponsorship deal with Gazprom, and the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in Sochi was cancelled, seven months before it was scheduled to take place. .
Questioned by AFP even before the new IOC statement, Pim Vershuuren, a researcher in the geopolitics of sport, estimated that the “decisions made this week are historic, as a shock measure.”
© 2022 AFP
