MOSCOW, August 8, Svetlana Bonopartova. The decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not to invite Russian figure skaters to Paris for the awards ceremony following the results of the 2022 Olympic team tournament is an attempt to avoid a scandal, said Olympic champion in speed skating, State Duma deputy of the Russian Federation Svetlana Zhurova.
On August 7, the IOC held an awards ceremony in Paris for the US and Japanese teams with medals in the team tournament of the 2022 Games in Beijing. The Americans were awarded gold medals, the Japanese — silver. The Russian national team skaters were supposed to be awarded bronze medals, but they did not receive an invitation from the IOC. On Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation reported that the Russian national team had appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to cancel the ceremony.
«I think that in this case the IOC really could not find a way out of the situation. The thing is that if we take into account that at the last Olympics the skaters won a medal as neutral athletes from Russia, there was a flag of our Olympic Committee, then by analogy the same attributes should have been at the awards ceremony. But in what status would they be going out now?» Zhurova said.
«I think it would have been very expensive. Imagine how much it would have cost to bring all the athletes from Russia. What flag would have been raised? Ukraine could have caused such a showdown… And the IOC did not want a scandal, they avoided it as much as possible, saying that it was difficult to organize. It is easy for all the teams, but difficult for ours,» she added.