Cold wave: Russian swimmers were banned from everything, even communication with the media

The International Federation (World Aquatics) has done this: it has been thinking since April, thinking, and finally issued criteria for the participation of Russian athletes in international competitions. And you can feel directly with your skin how those who developed the sanctions got excited. How they broke the brain in order to eat the desired “fish”. And leave the bone all the time to choke on all of us.

Yes, Russia has been persistently hammered and implemented for a long time: you will only have a neutral flag, a ban on the anthem and everything native. Submit the lists, and we’ll see who is who… And it’s not that everyone is accustomed to and resigned to reality, but they began to perceive the restrictions without a burning shock. And not that they unanimously agreed to all the conditions, but they kept a lot in their heads.

We understood: you need to earn qualifying points for the Olympic Games now – without them, there will be nothing at all. The Olympic Games are still a beacon. Yes, and you can not go into deaf isolation. For ourselves. And at least some international practice is better than none at all.

Hanging on a hook, waiting for the beacon to blink the right light for us, elite and young athletes hung there, trying to excite themselves at the internal starts. Sometimes it’s artificial. Sometimes – as, for example, at the just finished Russian Artistic Gymnastics Cup. The battles of generations were fought there in all seriousness, boldly and at a high level.

You can now fall off the hook. Waiting – stop.

World Aquatics has been giving birth to the selection criteria for our and Belarusian athletes for more than one month. To begin with, I took as a basis the recommendations of the IOC: a neutral flag, the absence of team events, the lack of support for the NWO and ties with military structures, no matter how they look in reality. It would seem, is not enough? But then a sophisticated winding of thick threads onto a bobbin began, which was supposed to turn the entrance to international arenas into a slot. And a sophisticated search for options: how to deprive those already disenfranchised of the opportunity at least for something?

And they did find it! As the four-time Olympic champion, president of the All-Russian Swimming Federation Vladimir Salnikov said, if until now the opportunity for performance was like a keyhole, now it has narrowed to the eye of a needle.

Yes, the fantasy criteria from World Aquatics are a flag for federations that have not yet allowed our athletes to start. Do not bother, colleagues, give yourself free rein, do not need aesthetics and red lines of decency: Russians have no rights, even when they are under a neutral flag and in white uniform.

The decision on the admission of the remaining federations will also, of course, be made. Here, only world athletics, led by Sebastian Coe, will probably hold out to the last, gritting their teeth at the Olympic Charter so that no one will disclose it and remember the content. The rest will give permission. Yes, even with proud explanations: we are for equality, for all athletes, what kind of discrimination?

Well, as the same water president Hussein al-Musallam just stated about World Aquatics’ respect for athletes: the organization “recognizes the dedication, talent of athletes, regardless of their nationality.” And is aware of the “responsibility for creating a competitive, fair and inclusive environment for each participant.” And – well-educated uncle! – thanked “everyone who participated in the development of a rigorous and fair approach.” To piss off even the most calm, it seems, is his strong point.

The criteria were developed by a special working group as a result of surveys among the best athletes of various ages. This group was created in April. World Aquatics claims that 67% of those surveyed supported the criteria. First, they asked whether Russia and Belarus should be allowed in at all, then they created admission rules, then they asked again – right? Or they screwed up prohibition clauses from the heart, and then asked: do you agree with the neutral status for “outcasts” or not?

Maybe this order of decision-making is not so important, but it is impossible to get rid of the feeling that the prohibition clauses were entered literally by hand until the last minute. “Neutral athletes and their support staff will not be allowed to pass through the mixed zone or participate in any press conferences during international water sports competitions. They will also not be allowed to give any interviews to the media during these tournaments,” a crazy innovation for the sport from World Aquatics.

Well, apparently, they scratched their turnips in the commission: how is it that “these people” will be able to go out to journalists after the competition? And something will have the right to say? Cross out! And in general, the general passage through the mixed zone is not for them. And for an interview, no matter in what zone, but always and everywhere during the tournament, they have no rights. And appear at press conferences too.

The picture, of course, was created by World Aquatics with wild imagination. There is, for example, our champion or medalist after the swim. He returns in a roundabout way, forced to shy away from foreign journalists, for many of whom a provocation is their daily bread. And our champion, proud of his victory, should hide and keep all emotions in himself. Don’t forget to bow down on those roundabout ways to World Aquatics for allowing international water to be used.

The same ways to get to the pedestal? And by the way, what about him? What about a group photo? Medals again… Shared toilet and canteen for all athletes? Shared water, bedside tables and judges? Members of the commission are fidgeting, probably on their chairs today: hell, they didn’t think somehow, we’ll add it later.

We have allowed ourselves to rejoice over the past few months for the views where qualifying points for participation in major tournaments are gained through seconds or length with height, and it does not matter in which tournament. But now, before getting to that international water, our athlete needs to show a qualifying result not in Kazan or Moscow, but at an international start. “Qualifying times for WA starts must be reached outside of Russia and Belarus at a WA approved tournament,” another innovation from World Aquatics.

By the way, what about the world records set in Russia, ratified by the international federation, how will they be counted? Evgenia Chikunova and Kliment Kolesnikov also haven’t qualified yet?

And that’s not all: athletes need to have four doping tests before the start, one – also taken outside of Russia. And 12 months before the application. That is, surrendered somewhere “out there” during the suspension. Illustrating all this in modern language – either a monkey with closed eyes, or a ringing blow to the forehead, or hands spread apart in bewilderment.

It seems that the absurd trial balloon that was rolled out to us with the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the Asian Games – without medals and out of standings, was quite liked by the International Aquatics Federation. The IOC rolled that ball back due to “technical reasons”, and World Aquatics picked up and upgraded. It didn’t get to the point that ours could perform out of competition, but in terms of mood, that’s about it. And the next tournament where, in theory, our swimmers can appear is the World Championships in Doha. It will pass in six months, in February.

In addition to swimming, World Aquatics includes diving, water polo and synchronized swimming. Water polo and synchronized swimming, according to the recommendations of the IOC, are deprived of everything from the very beginning: team sports. Like synchronized diving. Even the duet of synchronized swimmers is banned (and the allowed solo is not an Olympic discipline).

And here the criteria that WA presented is chewed up so that there is no doubt: “Athletes and their support personnel are not allowed to take part in any World Aquatics team competitions. A World Aquatics team competition is any competition in which more than one person participates whose combined efforts result in a single time or score.” Head coach of the synchronized swimming team Tatyana Pokrovskaya says: we are cut off from everything, “punished” for the fact that for more than 20 years Russian synchronized swimmers have won victories at six Olympics.

Another criterion for the admission of our and Belarusian leaders that violates all the laws of sports: “Maximum one athlete from Russia and one from Belarus per discipline will be admitted to World Aquatics competitions.” And this is both a violation of sports principles, and cynicism of the highest category. That is – we will press you here everywhere, but you also try, eat yourself in your competition. Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov on a potential pedestal side by side? Don’t even dream. (And the two-time Olympic champion Rylov is unlikely to receive admission at all. Disqualification for attending a concert in Luzhniki becomes a red card for him.)

… And then the IOC President gave another interview. Even Thomas Bach surprised me a little, he did not disown politics. He stated that the IOC, in order to convey its values, to gain the respect of the organization, needs to cooperate with politics: “It cannot be said that we have nothing to do with politics and that we live on an island or in a bubble, all alone.” And he even threw a stone at himself, but so gracefully. “I once called a lie the words of some former sports officials who said that sport has nothing to do with politics and money. It is not right”.

He also developed a slippery topic about cooperation and dialogue between sports and politics: conditions must be maintained so that politics “respects our autonomy, our neutrality and thus allows us to make the world a better place through sports.” If, they say, this does not happen, then there will be no more global solidarity. “Then there will be no more rules that apply to everyone in sports on this planet, and we will have to convince political leaders of this.”

It turns out that Bach thinks that these rules for “everyone in sports” still exist. Apparently, for the sake of this very autonomy, without quarreling with politics, World Aquatics will offer Russian athletes, in addition to all the requirements, to sign a declaration for admission to international competitions. And, since we are not in a bubble and not on an island, something tells us that it will not contain vague wording, as in American beauty contests, such as “I am for peace in the world.”

If even a little bit of naivety remained in us, we might hope that Thomas Bach is closer to the Games, having finally given permission to participate in them to a handful of our athletes (suitable for the IOC recommendations), will still stamp his foot in the direction of the federations. And he will firmly convey to them: I gave you the opportunity to choose and decide, you showed off at tournaments under my auspices, now it’s my Olympic time. And this is a different conversation. It will, of course, confirm everything about neutral status, lack of teams, support for the NWO, but still consider other restrictions on members of the Olympic family – albeit in a neutral status – a violation of human rights. What they are absolutely no longer even in figurative terms.

But we are no longer naive. And the indefatigable Thomas Bach does not get tired of standing his ground: we defend the rights of individual athletes, we are a family, and we punish only the state and the government.

So Bach’s foot will not move in the name of calling the international federations to the rules of decency. He doesn’t stomp. And just now, by the way, I confirmed: we must already recognize the reality, and it is such that “the world is ruled by politics, and this is a system.” And so all the rights for admission will remain with the head federations. Although the IOC leader once again declares: complete isolation of everyone who has a Russian passport is impossible from the point of view of “Olympic values, human rights and the IOC Charter.”

Well, it’s impossible to completely isolate. And if the eye of the needle remains – after all, everything is according to the rules.