A two-day meeting of the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee ended in Lausanne ( IOC). Following its results, Thomas Bach gave a press conference in which he tried to clarify his position on a number of pressing issues regarding Russia. How he did it is in the material of the Sport correspondent.
Much of what concerns the participation of Russian athletes in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris became clear the day before, when a document was published on how the principles voiced by in December 2023.
The document includes a flag, the color of which Olympic champion Veronika Stepanova called more suitable for underwear, an anthem that the President of the All-Russian Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics Irina Viner compared to a funeral march, as well as a decision to exclude neutral athletes from the opening ceremony athletes’ parade, about which the Honorable USSR coach Tatyana Tarasova said: “Well, who will want to go there after this?”
And the press conference on Wednesday began with a message that the IOC was trying to carefully study the statements coming from Russia. But, probably, either this organization does not have good translators, or their imagination is too wild, because IOC Communications Director Mark Adams reported a certain comment linking IOC President Thomas Bach, his nationality and the Holocaust. He called such a statement absolutely unacceptable and “breaking through the bottom.”
But here’s the problem: no speaker in Russia has given such a comment. Surprisingly, at the same press conference, the head of the IOC called the news that the Summer Olympic Games were going to be canceled in Brisbane fake, while his press secretary immediately created a fake on a much larger scale.
However, this is not the first time. Several times already, the IOC in its releases has called the Russian government involved in the doping scandal at the Sochi Olympics, although commissions created by the IOC itself have not come to such a conclusion. Yes, we often call Lausanne’s policy towards Russian athletes Russophobia and other terms that are not the most pleasant for the IOC, but how else can we perceive it after such blatant speculation?
In general, one feels that the IOC’s attacks on Russia are gradually becoming boring even in the West — after all, many there are not blind or deaf. The day before they asked a direct question about how the “Russia-Ukraine” case differs from the “Israel-Palestine” case, and today they asked: what needs to happen for the IOC and Russia — that is, the Olympic Committee of our country — to make peace.
To this, Bach gave the most evasive answer: “Everyone who follows the rules is welcome in the Olympic movement. If now the ROC starts to follow the rules, welcome. The ball is in their court. Our mission, in accordance with the Olympic Charter, is to have all NOCs in the organization , complying with the provisions of the charter and rules. Everything is in their hands.»
So guess what the IOC President meant. If the reason why the ROC was removed was the inclusion of the Olympic Councils of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions in its composition, then it is more than obvious that the organization operating on the territory of Russia and according to the laws of Russia simply could not make any other decision. And Bach cannot help but understand this. Moreover, we can say for sure that he understands, since in 2016 no sanctions from the IOC followed for a similar action by the ROC in relation to the Olympic Councils of Crimea and Sevastopol.
Maybe now it would be worthwhile to be constructive in relation to the current situation, to find ways along which it would be possible to move on? No — time is different now. The IOC is once again showing its duplicity: on the one hand, it trumpets everywhere about the inadmissibility of the politicization of sports, on the other hand, it itself is a tool in international politics. We emphasize that it is an instrument, since it is quite obvious that the IOC has lost its independence in decision-making. And another evidence of this is the aggressive rhetoric regarding the Friendship Games, which Russia is going to organize.
It would seem that if sport, according to the Olympic Charter, has a peaceful mission, support this idea! After all, during the Cold War, the IOC did not object to either the 1984 Friendship Games or the Goodwill Games. But Bach on Wednesday again spoke of politicization leading to «division» and some possible sanctions for participating in the competition. It’s even funny — what kind of division are we talking about if the organizing committee of the Friendship Games invites absolutely all interested countries to take part in the competition?
“Give peace a chance,” Thomas Bach said again at today’s press conference, repeating the phrase he said at Closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Beijing and at the UN. But these are words again. Immediately, the head of the IOC declares that he has no contacts either with the ROC, “since he is suspended,” or with the Russian Ministry of Sports, or with anyone else in our country. So what chance can we talk about if the IOC itself refuses any form of dialogue? Whose ball is it? Alas, at the moment the question is rhetorical.