MOSCOW, June 19, Andrey Vasilchin. In April, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine made a highly controversial statement. Local athletes were banned overnight from participating in tournaments with representatives of Russia and Belarus, which, obviously, caused bewilderment among the fans. After all, despite the fact that the “ban” of domestic and Belarusian athletes is almost universal, in 2023 there are many competitions where they did not dare to remove ours. which athletes from the Russian Federation and/or Belarus take part,» the high-profile order said.
Otherwise, federations violating this rule could lose their national status (and funding).
It became unclear how Ukrainians can participate in boxing and MMA tournaments, wrestling and fencing. The 2024 European Football Championship and the 2024 Summer Olympics were also questionable … True, Ukraine quickly disowned the admission of the Euro in Germany: Russia does not participate in the European championship, and Belarus was in a different qualifying group. Well, you can play!
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“The Ukrainian Ministry of Sports shoots itself in the foot… Soon it will probably shoot itself in the head. Let their guys compete anywhere and with anyone".
Dmitry VasilievTwo-time Olympic champion in biathlon
However, there was no more clarity for the rest of the tournaments. Ukrainian tennis players, contrary to the decree, play on the same courts with the Russians — there were no sanctions against them from local officials and there are none. An actual example: last weekend in Las Vegas, another non-numbered tournament of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was held, in which Denis Bondar, a native of Kharkiv, got on the same card with Muslim Salikhov and two Russian-Armenian fighters Armen Petrosyan and Arman Tsarukyan.
And now, a new version of the decree has appeared on the website of the department. As follows from the document, the wording «prohibit the official delegations of the national teams of Ukraine from participating in international sports competitions in which athletes from the Russian Federation and/or Belarus take part» was changed to «do not send official delegations».
br>Accordingly, participating in «forbidden» tournaments, you automatically cannot count on state funding. We read: if you don’t want to mix sports with politics and lose your best years, go for your money or look for a sponsor.
Apparently, if even one Russian participates in the 2024 Games, Ukrainians will have to change their minds, as in the case of the Euro. It's hard to imagine that the athletes will have to go to Paris at their own expense… In an attempt to sit on two chairs, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is trying to please the West and frankly not «merge» the Russians. This means that even with the most restrictive realities of Russian sports, which we will mention below, there is still a small probability of participation of Russian representatives in the Summer Olympic Games.
Finally, what the IOC Executive Board decided on in March:
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