br>
The International Athlete Forum ended in Lausanne this week, at which the issue was also discussed admission of Russians and Belarusians to international competitions. Quite unexpectedly, it featured a seemingly forgotten topic called “Russian athletes in the refugee team” retrieved from the archives. A Sport correspondent tells how.
«Approvals from Fourcade»
The forum took place over two days, and during the first of them the topic of admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes was discussed by their colleagues from all over the world. First, the head of the IOC Athletes' Commission, Emma Terho, spoke, in whose place, by the way, could have been Russian Elena Isinbaeva, who lost to her in the 2021 elections. The former Finnish hockey player read out the main points from the IOC recommendations, trying not to express a personal attitude towards them — although the intonation sometimes suggested whether she agreed with the opinion of a number of sports and political figures in the northern countries who advocate the complete elimination of Russia and Belarus from the international sports arena.
After her, the presenter gave people from the audience the opportunity to speak. Some used it to talk about their problems. For example, an athlete from Yemen shared that he received a visa for a whole month to come to Lausanne for this forum, and then said that as long as the whole world helps Ukraine, no one cares what happens in his country. “And our situation is much worse,” he added, almost frightened by his words. Similar notes were heard in the speeches of athletes from Africa, who recalled that they know first-hand what armed conflicts are.
The most emotional and at the same time integral performance, perhaps, was the final one in the session — from the Armenian Arsen Julfalakyan, silver medalist of the London Olympics, winner and multiple medalist of the world championships in Greco-Roman wrestling. He even went on stage so everyone could see him and admitted that he had no intention of taking the microphone, but felt he had to do it. Somewhere confusingly, but overall, it seemed, very sincerely Julfalakyan tried to tell the meeting why athletes should not be punished for the actions of politicians.
«The World Wrestling Championship has just taken place. The Russians competed both in a neutral status and under the flag of other countries, they competed with the Ukrainians. Armenians fought with Azerbaijanis on the same mat — although there is a war between their countries. How do you explain the fact that the Armenian «And an Azerbaijani can compete, but a Russian or a Belarusian cannot? Sports must remain an island of peace. In the West they already prohibit (Russians) from receiving education, they prohibit (Russian) culture, if sports are banned, what will remain?» — Julfalakyan stated and admitted to put pressure on politicians, but not on athletes, especially since many of them — for example, those under 18 years old — cannot even go to the polls and vote, but, according to the “banners”, this is something then they were guilty.
Ukrainians will accept Russian athletes only as refugees
Representatives of Ukraine also spoke. In which a relatively fresh thought was voiced — if you skip the political parts of their statements, in which there was nothing new. It turns out that Ukrainian athletes “do not have the moral right” to compete with neutral athletes, since they do not understand what it is. But they would have such a right if those Russian and Belarusian athletes who want to compete at the Olympics would leave their countries and join the refugee team.
< br>
“Relatively” — this word appeared here for the reason that the idea of adding Russians to refugees was already heard in the summer. This was an “insider” from the All Sport news agency, and it began to be discussed at all levels of the Russian sports community. For several days, both the leaders of our sport and high-status speakers sharply condemned such a hypothetical version of the speech at the Olympics, and then the IOC disowned it through the mouth of its press service.
Bach responded to accusations of double standards, but not to the question of refugees
On the second day of the International Athlete Forum, IOC President Thomas Bach spoke. He repeated his main theses of recent times — he recalled that there are currently 28 armed conflicts in the world, which must be approached with the same standards, and the goal of the Olympic movement is to unite all athletes in peaceful competitions. Speaking about the accusations that the IOC applies double standards to Russian athletes, Bach replied that they can be explained by the outbreak of a military conflict during the Olympic truce. The IOC President also expressed hope that representatives of all countries will be able to compete at the Olympics, and neutral status for athletes from Russia and Belarus, according to him, is a solution for everyone in this situation.
Bach refused to answer the question of the representative of Ukraine, why not force Russians and Belarusians to compete in a team of refugees. However, the fact that this idea is now being talked about, albeit at the instigation of the Ukrainians, at a world sports forum is quite possibly not an accident. It seems that the International Olympic Committee is having a hard time resisting those who don't want to hear any arguments about uniting all athletes in peaceful competition. It’s not enough for them that some of them will be humiliated and infringed on their rights in comparison with others just by their neutral status. They want Russian athletes to simply renounce their country.
But in Russia, neutral status is considered a similar “renunciation.” There are many speakers on this topic, for example, here is one of the latest. “It’s true that our six-year-olds raise their hands at concerts and their nails are painted in the tricolor,” said the president of the All-Russian Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics Irina Viner on Tuesday. “They come already as patriots! We have 86 regions involved in rhythmic gymnastics. I was recently at the Dalny East, and I think, by the way, that we should move there gradually, all our friendly countries are there. I think we will go to ensure that our flag continues to rise further. Of course, I agree that our children should have a flag and anthem «, we don't understand and don't accept anything else. Yes, it wasn't in Tokyo, but at least Tchaikovsky was there. Now — white uniform, we give up, our athletes are separated by a red line, there is a hunt for wolves and puppies.»
Well, all that remains is to wait for the IOC's decision on the Paris Olympics. But it seems like Bach doesn't have one right now—and probably won't have one anytime soon. It is quite possible that at a time when even a theoretical chance of qualifying for the Olympic Games will remain with an extremely small number of Russian athletes. And the question of what status they will be in when they go to the capital of France will not be the most important.