Russian saber fencers cut off the Olympics – Kommersant

The process of returning domestic athletes to international competitions, as expected, ran into barriers provided for by the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The International Fencing Federation (FIE) has denied access to participation in its tournaments to almost all the leaders of the Russian saber team, thus, in fact, depriving them of the opportunity to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), Stanislav Pozdnyakov, called the IOC criteria “a toolkit for a thinly veiled suspension,” insisting that it was about “discrimination and double standards that are still applied on a national basis” against Russian representatives.

President of the Russian Fencing Federation (FFR) Ilgar Mammadov said TASS that the International Fencing Federation has sent to the Russian structure a list of domestic saber fencers who can be allowed to participate in international competitions. Speaking about this list, Mr. Mammadov admitted that “there are no surnames familiar to the world in it.” As it turned out, admission was denied to all the best Russian saber fencers, including the brightest stars of the Russian women’s team, two-time Olympic champions Sofia Velikaya, Sofia Pozdnyakova and Yana Yegoryan. In addition to them, according to Ilgar Mammadov, it also did not include Olga Nikitina, Kamil Ibragimov, Veniamin Reshetnikov, and “many other promising and strong guys” who also had a gold Olympic award on their track record.

The head of the FFR added that the federation is currently waiting for similar lists for athletes from other disciplines, after which a position will be developed on its further actions.

At the same time, Mr. Mammadov said “RIA News”that FIE-approved saber fencers will also “not” compete in international competitions. Consequently, like Sofia Velikaya, Yana Yegoryan and Sofia Pozdnyakova, they will apparently lose their chances to go to the next summer Olympics, which will be held in the summer of 2024 in Paris: this year’s tournaments are qualifying for her.

The news from the FFR only confirmed the assumptions that the implementation of the new recommendations of the International Olympic Committee, published at the end of March, will face enormous difficulties. The IOC, which initiated the introduction of a regime of almost complete sports isolation for representatives of Russia and Belarus last year after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, called for its abolition. The parent sports structure appealed to its constituent federations with a request 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 national security agencies. The FIE had authorized the return of the Russians even before that, without waiting for the official adjustment of the “isolation” recommendations.

The International Federation explained to the FFR that the refusal to allow celebrities to wear the Russian saber was made precisely on the basis of the recommendations of the IOC. This, however, was not difficult to guess even without such an explanation.

The fact is that all the athletes mentioned by Ilgar Mammadov represent sports societies that are formally associated either with the armed forces or with national security agencies: Sofia Velikaya, Yana Yegoryan, Sofia Pozdnyakova, Olga Nikitina and Kamil Ibragimov – CSKA, Veniamin Reshetnikov – Dynamo . The lion’s share of the other candidates for the national team are also members of these sports societies. The situation is similar in other sports.

The message of the FFR caused an extremely sharp reaction from the President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Stanislav Pozdnyakov. Mr. Pozdnyakov, who won four Olympic golds in saber fencing, back in April described the new IOC recommendations as a “farce”. Now he repeated this thought. In his Telegram channel Mr. Pozdnyakov wrote that, in his opinion, the IOC “imposes such criteria under which the participation of the vast majority of our athletes and almost all leaders of national teams in the selection for the Olympics and other competitions is unrealistic in practice.”

The President of the Russian Olympic Committee called the organization’s reservations “a toolkit for a thinly veiled suspension,” insisting that it was about “discrimination and double standards that are still applied on a national basis” against Russian representatives.

Describing the situation that has arisen in fencing, Stanislav Pozdnyakov said that he “repeatedly discussed with the members of the national team the format of the “return” proposed by him”, and noted that “none of them have considered and are not considering the option of performing at international tournaments under the existing restrictions”: “The position is unanimous – our fencers will participate only if they have equal rights with athletes from other countries, without far-fetched and illegal parameters and other artificial obstacle courses.”

It turned out that the Kremlin is also aware of the fencers’ problems. Commenting on the FIE strategy, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, said that the Russian authorities “appraise such decisions very negatively” and consider it “absolutely wrong to try to condition their participation in international competitions with some political requirements for athletes.”

However, the version that the issue with fencers should not be considered as one hundred percent indicative in the history of the admission of Russian athletes seems to be relevant, and much in this regard depends on the interpretation of the IOC criteria by the federations. In any case, there is a recent example of a slightly different shade, much more pleasant for Russia.

Qatar is currently hosting the World Judo Championships. International Judo Federation (IJF) unhooked there are several Russian athletes from him, but in Doha Russia is still represented by an almost full-fledged team of 17 people. It also includes all three domestic medalists of the Tokyo 2021 Olympics – Madina Taimazova, Niyaz Ilyasov and Tamerlan Bashaev, despite the fact that they play for CSKA.

Alexey Dospekhov