According to forecasts, only 36 Russian athletes will make it to the Olympics in Paris
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Russia’s recently very difficult relations with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seem to be entering a stage of acute confrontation. The IOC, having created a commission for the admission of domestic athletes to the Summer Olympic Games in Paris and warned in advance that, at best, only about fifty of them would be able to take part in the Olympics, moreover, under conditions of severe restrictions such as a ban on participation in the parade at the opening ceremony, launched an attack on the main Russian sports project in isolation. He called the World Friendship Games, which will be hosted by Moscow and Yekaterinburg shortly after the Paris Olympics, “a blatant violation of the Olympic Charter” and which really look like a kind of alternative to it, taking into account the likely absence of most of the leaders of the Russian team in the French capital.
On Tuesday, after a meeting of the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee, two documents appeared on the organization’s official website directly affecting its relations with Russia, which became sharply complicated after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. It was the IOC that initiated the introduction of a regime of virtually complete international isolation of the Russian sports industry in connection with it. Last year it was softened, and representatives of Russia and Belarus were formally allowed to participate in the next Summer Olympic Games, which open in Paris on July 26, in neutral status (AIN). And the first of the documents relates to this Olympics.
It records the creation of a special commission for the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the Olympics (AINERP). It included IOC Vice President Nicole Houverts, as well as representatives of the IOC Ethics Commission and the IOC Athletes’ Commission Pau Gasol and Seung Min Ryu. The function of the body will be to check athletes for compliance with the ultra-strict IOC criteria required to obtain AIN status.
The criteria include refusal to support the SVO and inadmissibility of belonging to the armed forces and national security agencies of the Russian Federation.
IOC Director of Relations with National Olympic Committees James MacLeod said that, contrary to the suspicions of some Russian sports officials, applicants for status will not be required to write a written condemnation of the special operation, but they will be forced to sign an agreement with the “peaceful mission” of the structure.
But the suspicions that the presence of criteria and filters invented by the IOC and international federations, together with the deprivation of recognition from the Russian Olympic Committee in the fall, have actually been justified, actually exclude the possibility of the country’s performance in France, even remotely resembling a full-fledged one. The IOC material provides forecasts from its experts regarding the number of athletes from Russia and Belarus at the Olympics. The maximum numbers are 55 and 28, respectively. But the IOC suggests that achieving such a modest figure is “unlikely.” The “most likely” scenario is the presence of 22 Belarusian and 36 Russian athletes at the Olympics. At the previous Summer Olympics, which took place in Tokyo in 2021, the Russian team had 330 athletes.
But those who qualify for the Olympics will have to face severe restrictions, such as a ban on participating in the parade at the opening ceremony or displaying national symbols.
And in honor of the successes of neutral athletes who are not taken into account in the official medal standings, the “AIN anthem” will be played without words and the “AIN flag” will be raised.
An even more clear hint that the conflict between Russia and the IOC was entering a stage of acute confrontation was the second document entitled “Declaration against the politicization of sports.” In fact, it is not about the general strategy of the IOC, but about a very specific case. And at its center is Russia.
The reason for the escalation was the IOC’s study of the situation with the World Friendship Games, conceived in 2023.
They can be considered the largest sports project in Russia during the isolation period. The World Friendship Games are large-scale complex international competitions in 33 sports, which will be held shortly after the end of the Olympics – from September 15 to 29 – in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. Their estimated budget exceeds 8 billion rubles, and the champions of the Games are planned to be paid bonuses corresponding in size to Olympic bonuses, that is, in the region of $40 thousand. In fact, the project is very reminiscent of an attempt to organize something like an alternative Olympics and in this sense is very similar to “Friendship-84” competitions: they were held in 1984 by the USSR, which boycotted the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, inviting friendly states.
So, in its declaration, the IOC said that the “Russian government” had undertaken an “intensive diplomatic offensive” in order to ensure interest in the World Friendship Games abroad.
The “offensive” allegedly involves “government delegations” and “ambassadors” making contact not only with their colleagues, but also directly with “sports organizations” around the world. The IOC equates this to a “flagrant violation of the Olympic Charter and a number of UN resolutions” prohibiting the politicization of sport. He is sure that Russia is making a “cynical attempt” to implement it, using the competition as “part of a political propaganda campaign.”
In addition, in the same declaration, the IOC also touches on a completely different topic – the topic of doping, also linking it with the World Friendship Games. Referring to the recent “doping crisis”, he says the Russian government is showing “total disrespect for global anti-doping standards”, adding that last week the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) expressed “concerns” about the Games plans because they are not within the orbit of WADA itself, and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) is currently deprived of compliance status. In conclusion, the IOC calls on all members of the Olympic movement to refuse to participate in or support “any initiative that politicizes international sport.”
However, his attack does not seem to have made a strong impression on the Russian side. In a statement issued by the organizing committee of the World Friendship Games TASS, the IOC’s position is described as “unconstructive.” The publication explains that it “is not aimed at the development of sports, which is facilitated by the emergence of new commercial competition formats with a serious organizational level and attractive conditions for athletes,” and clarifies that “the key principles of the Friendship Games are equal conditions and the absence of discrimination in any form for all competition participants.”
It is even more significant that the appearance of the IOC declaration coincided with the adoption by the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the first reading of the bill on the World Friendship Games. It regulates various aspects of them – the procedure for the entry and exit of foreign athletes, the formation of prices for accommodation, a simplified procedure for attracting foreign citizens to work at competitions as volunteers. Moreover, the authors of the bill emphasize that with its help they are creating the basis for the formation of a “model model” with the aim of continuing the project in subsequent years, including abroad.
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