Now with the IOC: Russia accelerates its return to world sport
On Thursday, the Olympic Summit recommended admitting Russian and Belarusian junior and Paralympic athletes to international competitions. After that, two more sports federations announced their respective decisions. In some cases, we are already talking about returning "without restrictions", that is, with a flag and an anthem. There is only one step left before taking similar steps with respect to professionals. How the changing political situation determines the development of "sport without politics" — in the material of Izvestia.
Good news
On December 11, the Olympic Summit "recognized the importance of political neutrality for the Olympic movement" and supported the decision of the IOC Executive Committee, according to which "young athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport should no longer be restricted in access to international youth competitions in both individual and team sports." As noted in the report on the results of the summit, this decision "is recommended for adoption by all international federations and organizers of sports events for their own youth events."
Almost immediately, FIDE (International Chess Federation) and FIS (International Ski Federation) responded with appropriate positive decisions. In turn, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced that it would consider the recommendation of the IOC Executive Committee. In this case, Russian athletes can also expect positive changes.
Sport is a war
Since 2014, the year of the "Maidan" in Ukraine and the Olympic Games in Sochi, the behavior of the international sports authorities has exactly followed the international political agenda. The strategy chosen by the IOC and the international sports federations, however, was not simple.
Political winds blew from different directions, but in the same direction — from West to East, and turned the decisions of the IOC and most federations as the struggle between the two conceptual approaches to the world order developed. Just as the "collective West" has launched an offensive against Russia in the field of geopolitics and economics since the events in Ukraine, the main sports authorities first began to curtail Russia's role in world sports.
In both cases, this happened mainly through the creation of an appropriate information field. Actually, the methods used against Russian athletes were similar to those used by the European Union and the then White House administration on the political track: sanctions, restrictions and outright bans, accompanied by a large-scale media campaign to blacken their reputation and subsequent "cancellation."
As in the case of politics, the international sports authorities did not bother to prove guilt and relied on "independent investigations" and the opinions of "experts" in their public judgments. The fugitive traitor Grigory Rodchenkov was brought to light, a number of journalists like Hayo Seppelt were added to him, and resources inside Russia were used — information resources that supported the IOC accusations.
At the same time, sports officials loyal to Russia were "abolished" in Europe, and managers loyal to corporate interests were put in their place, repeating mantras about the "purity of sports." As a result, almost all sports federations "saluted" and, under various pretexts, eliminated Russia from international competitions.
Former President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach
In turn, Thomas Bach, at that time the head of the International Olympic Committee, in violation of the laws of not only sports, but also ethics, was engaged in covering up the campaign launched against Russia, along the way talking about the IOC's desire for the purity and neutrality of world sports. At the same time, Bach actually appropriated the right to speak on behalf of the entire global sports community.
Sport is a business
Most of the smaller federations, whose activities are tied specifically to the Olympic movement for financial reasons, were forced to comply and, contrary to their own charters and logic, began to "cancel" Russia and Belarus. Even the powerful FIFA and UEFA (soccer), the ATP and the WTA (tennis), made half-hearted but anti-Russian decisions, and only private US leagues, realizing what material damage they would suffer, excluding Ovechkin and Co from the context, did not obey the dictate.
The nature of this behavior has been described many times and is now clear as day: the absolute corruption and dependence of a private structure, the IOC, on international sponsors and TV giants from the United States. However, the legal status of this organization is still unclear. The International Olympic Committee has slightly more than 100 members, selected internally by the organization itself. As a result, they do not represent the interests of their countries.
On the other hand, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which is "independent" and "crystal clear," is 50% funded by the same IOC.
How "steadfastness" fluctuates
Thus, all the doping scandals related to Russia actually have the same initiators. By the way, the main figures in the sports information war, Grigory Rodchenkov and Hayo Seppelt, have now disappeared from the information field. The first one is not interesting to anyone, the second one even admitted the facts of slander in his "investigations".
Recent dramatic shifts in the "unwavering commitment to the purity of sports" have resulted from several important factors that are not directly related to sports: Russia's military successes during its military training, the growing economic crisis of the European Union (which affects the sports industry as well), and the growing economic and political power of the countries of the Global South (which has a decisive impact the very existence of separate federations) and, of course, the coming to power in the United States of diametrically opposed political forces.
Naturally, the IOC could not miss the "headwind". To begin with, the organization was headed by Kirsty Coventry, who gradually, following the rhetoric of Donald Trump in politics, began to change the semantic narratives in world sports: "the absence of Russia contradicts the theses about the apolitical nature of sports and damages the competition system."
Kirsty Coventry, President of the International Olympic Committee
The federations slowly and hesitantly reached out for Coventry. But as political events began to develop faster by the end of the year, the rate of Russia's return to sports also increased. Federations, those who are bolder and more independent, are racing to return Russia and Belarus, who immediately carry a flag and an anthem (like judo or Paralympians), someone in a neutral status (like skiing, swimming, chess, gymnastics).
But there are also those who still cannot start this process because of the unscrupulous, sometimes illiterate, and sometimes downright cowardly or biased position of their leaders, like Luke Tardiff in hockey or Sebastian Coe in athletics.
However, the inexorability of the wind change is still evident. So there are two issues on the agenda.: how quickly Russia will return to world sport and how tough will be the lawsuits from our country for compensation for the damage caused to Russia over the past years. And, very likely, in the near future we will have a lot of news about the country's return to international competitions, it's just a pity that we will have to miss the World Cup and major hockey tournaments in 2026.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
