Bad attitude towards horses – Newspaper Kommersant No. 59 (7504) dated 04/06/2023

The trend to cancel the isolation of domestic athletes, which seemed to have formed after the recommendations adopted last week by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on their return to top competitions, was violated by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI). Ignoring the position of the IOC, she upheld the suspension of Russians and Belarusians, citing the inability to determine the “neutrality” of the athletes.

The International Equestrian Federation held an emergency meeting of the FEI Council, its key body, via teleconference. It was dedicated to the new recommendations of the International Olympic Committee regarding Russia and Belarus, published last week. They boiled down to the expediency of lifting the regime of complete isolation for their representatives, introduced at the initiative of the IOC last year after the start of a military special operation in Ukraine. The leading sports structure called on its constituent federations to ensure the return of Russians and Belarusians to international competitions subject to a number of conditions, the key of which is the rejection of “active” support for a special military operation and the actions of the Russian authorities, including the absence of ties with the armed forces of the Russian Federation and bodies ” national security.”

The outcome of the discussion at the FEI Council can be called a notable event, since it looks like a kind of precedent that breaks an already seemingly formed trend. Even before the publication of the recommendations of the IOC, the “isolation” policy was abandoned by the International Boxing Association (IBA) and the International Fencing Federation (FIE). At the end of last week, following the corrected vector, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) informed about its readiness to return the Russians and Belarusians in May. And already this week, their return was sanctioned by the International Taekwondo Federation (World Taekwondo) and the United World Wrestling (UWW).

Meanwhile, the FEI Council, ignoring the position of the IOC, approved the continuation of sanctions for Russia and Belarus. Their “athletes, horses and officials” are still banned from participating in competitions under the auspices of the federation, and all projects related to the two countries are “frozen”. Explaining her decision, FEI President Ingmar De Vos, who is also a member of the IOC, said that it was based on the inability “at this stage to determine the neutrality of athletes” in a “satisfactory way” because the organization does not have the “appropriate tools” to assess the level of “neutrality”.

Thus, Russian equestrians will certainly not be able to compete at the Paris Olympics in 2024, even if Russia is admitted to it: the question of its presence at the IOC Olympics will be discussed later. True, we are talking about a not too noticeable loss in terms of potential contribution to the medal standings. In the world equestrian hierarchy, Russia, unlike wrestling or taekwondo, is far from an elite niche and has not claimed awards for top competitions for a long time.

Alexey Dospekhov