Putin made an offer to Russian athletes: they will decide for themselves whether to go to the 2024 Olympics

And the president of the country said literally the following during the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum: “Of course, we must first of all be guided by the interests of the athletes in this situation. And each of them, who has been preparing for years, some decades, must make certain decisions for themselves.”

Will our athletes still be in Paris? We don’t want to fall out of international life and the Olympic movement? One hundred percent – ​​we don’t want to. We don’t really like it today, but there is no alternative. The president of the country again emphasized: “As for the Olympic movement itself, I think that today’s leadership of the international federations, the International Olympic Committee itself, is perverting the original idea of ​​​​Pierre de Coubertin.”

The day before, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, voiced what had hitherto been unspoken in the air: he advocated the participation of Russians in the Olympics as individual and neutral athletes. Quote: “We know that there will still be athletes who will take part in these Games in their personal capacity. I am convinced that we need to be involved in this way.”

He gave an explanation of why you shouldn’t refuse: “We, of course, need to maintain the level of our athletes, and it is impossible to do this without international competitions. … elite sport is a professional sport, and it is important for us to maintain a very high level of our athletes.”

There is no alternative to Olympic sports, although it is being planned. No, we will definitely have the Friendship Games. Here you can give the same one hundred percent. And also competitions within the BRICS framework. There are also a variety of internal tournaments. And the head of state is even sure: “This will correspondingly kill today’s international structures, we need to update them, and also update personnel…”. This is an arrow to the future.

The president also says that “we will protect our athletes, we will create alternative opportunities for them, including the financial results of their achievements.” For example, victories at the Friendship Games are already equal to prize money for victories at the Olympic Games. According to Putin, “one way or another, alternative movements will be created,” this is an “objective process.”

The Friendship Games will take place from September 15 to 29, 2024 in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. But first, the Olympic Games will take place in Paris. And no one has yet officially invited us there, and this is important. So for now we decide for ourselves: to go or not to go. And who will go from among those athletes who will receive qualifying points is also now a matter of decision.

But there is something that is already unchanged at these Games for all Russians and Belarusians: the absence of a flag and anthem. And at the same time, for us, there is also non-participation in the most emotional and gambling component of the Olympic Games always and everywhere: in team competitions. In all types.

By the way, can you imagine such Olympic Games without teams? Without our stunning handball; mind-blowing synchronized swimming; golden artistic gymnastics teams that made us cry with them, leaving all our strength with them on the platform; valid and desperate volleyball; swimming relays?.. Are these the Olympic Games?

Thomas Bach said everything about neutrality and individuality for Russia a long time ago. They say that in the rules of participation that will eventually be developed for us, the position of the receiving party is very important. French President Macron has already also noted in a trendy style: “Obviously, the Russian flag cannot be at the 2024 Olympics, it seems to me that there is a consensus on this issue.” And he asked the question: “The Olympic world must decide whether to give Russian athletes a place at the Olympics?” And he awesomely outlined the balance “that we need to strive for”: the IOC must make a decision “that will be fair and that the Ukrainians will accept.”

While specially concerned people are looking for a balance, for Russia at international competitions the forms of admission from the parent federations are already very different in terms of the political component. Shocking – as, for example, in aquatic species, which decided that even after a performance our athletes must walk on separate roads from other participants and that they do not have the right to interviews and press conferences. Or – quite acceptable within some restrictions, as in judo, in which the traditional philosophy of this sport wins: respect for athletes and honesty.

There is also this: go, but stop. “Thanks to” which the Russian Fencing Federation has already announced a complete loss of chances to qualify for the Olympics. Our athletes did not make it to the qualifying tournaments for the Olympic Games, and among the athletes admitted to international competitions there were none representing Dynamo or CSKA. That is, our leaders in world fencing.

And the picture of international sport, or rather, of us in it, is actually depressing. No, in 26 out of 39 Olympic sports our athletes are allowed to compete. And they even take part in 8 of them – wrestling, rowing, cycling, fencing, taekwondo, judo, tennis and boxing. But in the rest, the admission criteria have either not yet been developed, are unacceptable, or are not met (lack of visas, etc.). So the Ministry of Sports concludes: “there is an understanding that Russians will not be able to compete in most sports at the Olympics, but the department is working on those disciplines where there is a chance to take part.”

By the way, another question may soon be raised: the athletes who have decided to go to the Games, at whose expense will they conduct their preparations and all that? In principle, Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin answered this question quite a long time ago. As soon as our athletes began to be allowed to compete, he said: we will do everything necessary to ensure their participation in international competitions. “For us, they were, are and remain our athletes, members of national teams.”

True, he added that it will be necessary, of course, to look at the conditions put forward by the international federations. “We are carefully studying these issues from a legal and financial point of view, I think that we will find a way out, because our main task is to ensure the participation of our athletes, subject to respect for our rights.”

To be more precise – our remaining rights. But the main thing is not even this, but how the IOC will respond to the state’s help, which, putting forward the conditions for the individuality of each athlete who personally applies for neutral status, declared: the right to resort to state help in preparation, travel, accommodation (and so on) Individuals do not. It’s not for nothing that Bach constantly reminds us that we punish the state, not the athletes, we cross them out from everywhere.

During the Eastern Economic Forum, Oleg Matytsin emphasized: the task now is to be in dialogue with the IOC and federations regarding athletes who still have the opportunity to go to the Games, and to ensure their participation. But without crossing the “red line” – signing declarations, condemning the policies of the president and government. “We assume and hope that some of the athletes will take part. In this historical period, this is probably the right step.”

This historical period in which we all live faces challenges that have never been seen before. Nobody knows how we will ultimately overcome them in sports. Whom we will lose, who and what we will find.

Paris 2024 is coming. Are our representatives still negotiating with the IOC? They’re probably coming. I want to believe that they are coming. It is difficult to say which criteria can be canceled before the official invitation to the Games. The neutral status will remain, you don’t even have to talk. But it is quite possible to legitimize not making declarations of neutrality too strict. By the way, even today there are no clauses about renouncing the country or condemning it. More likely: I won’t make political statements, not a red line, although it’s still not the most pleasant element.

And so – yes, we now start from the given direction. “Ultimately, each person makes their own choice.” And this may mean that some of our leaders who received a quota will still go to the Olympic Games in Paris. But it’s still not a fact.