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On Sunday it became known that the President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov was not included in the number of members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) commission for the Olympic program, where he has been since 2019. Alas, this is further evidence that the politicization of the Olympic movement continues at full speed, no matter how IOC President Thomas Bach insists to the contrary.
In every keynote speech of the recent Olympic fencing champion from Germany, one can find theses that states cannot influence the international Olympic movement in general and individual competitions in particular. For example, they cannot determine which countries have the right to participate in a particular tournament and which countries do not. Bach even last year chided Wimbledon for the suspension of tennis players from Russia and Belarus and cited as an example the organizers of all other competitions that allowed athletes from these countries.
True, the words of condemnation of real deeds are somehow not observed. The IOC has only taken away a number of Olympic qualifying competitions from Great Britain, where athletes from Russia and Belarus entering the country are required to sign a political declaration. But otherwise, people can get away with discrimination based on passport affiliation. Poland and the Czech Republic did not allow the same tennis players from Russia into their territory if they had a visa — no sanctions were issued against them.
But in relation to Russia, the IOC continues to do things. This time it went to Bach’s colleague in the sport. ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov was taken and thrown out of the list of members of the IOC Commission for the Olympic Program, which was published on Sunday. The four-time Olympic fencing champion has been a member of it since 2019. The IOC press service, which promptly answers some questions, is predictably silent this time in response to a request to name the reason for this decision. But it is obvious that this is not a matter of planned rotation — in a commission consisting of 24 people, Pozdnyakov was the only one who was replaced.
The names of Russian representatives were also deleted from the list of members of two other IOC commissions. The former President of the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) Vladimir Lisin was removed from the IOC Marketing Commission, and the former Secretary General of the ROC, five-time Olympic champion in synchronized swimming Anastasia Davydova, was removed from the Olympic Education Commission.
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“All decisions related to our membership in one or another IOC commission are absolutely expected. Today’s is a predictable response to fair criticism of the discriminatory policy of neutralizing Russian athletes. Ban, excommunicate, deprive — the paradigm of the current approaches of colleagues from Lausanne does not now imply the presence of Russia in the Olympic movement. So it’s not surprising,” Pozdnyakov said in his Telegram channel, commenting on the latest news.
There is nothing to add to this, except perhaps one remark. The day before, the author of these lines had the opportunity to ask Pozdnyakov a couple of questions on the sidelines of the Union State Cup in modern pentathlon — another successfully organized competition, in which, as in the Games of the CIS countries, as in the International University Sports Festival and many other tournaments in Russia and Belarus, no one even thinks of taking away flags or anthems from participants from countries with different political systems. Where all the athletes enter the arena and shake hands.
So, Pozdnyakov, commenting on the situation in international sports, from where Russia is being systematically ousted, said: “Both the Russian Ministry of Sports and the ROC will work to ensure that measures of social, including material, support for our athletes are regular. Great I am aware that the Olympic Games cannot be replaced, but nevertheless, it is simply necessary to create a harmonious calendar for our athletes in order to motivate them to further improve their sportsmanship.”
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So, after the next anti-Russian actions on the part of the IOC, there is no way to get rid of this thought: if this organization does not consider Russian representatives indispensable and so easily “erases” them from the Olympic movement — Shouldn’t we show Bach that he and his company in the sports world may not be as uncontested as they consider themselves? Yes, we do not oppose the BRICS Games and the Friendship Games to the Olympics, but at least to demonstrate where the slogan “Faster, higher, stronger — together” rules not in words, but in reality, would be very good.