The International Gymnastics Federation breaks the silence: the platform will remain without Russia
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FIG has prescribed criteria for strict admission of our athletes to tournaments
The International Gymnastics Federation has announced the criteria for admitting our athletes to competitions. Back on July 19, the FIG Executive Committee decided to admit Russians and Belarusians to international competitions as individual neutral athletes. The deadline was set: January 1, 2024. And then it took the organization four months to register all the prohibitions.
Our athletes are allowed to perform, as follows from the IOC recommendations, in a neutral status: their native flag, anthem, mention of belonging to a country anywhere (in an interview or on social networks), everything is prohibited. The flag for everyone is blue. Particular attention is paid to the musical accompaniment of the athletes: no hint of connections with Russia or politics.
The International Federation paints a picture that is difficult to even imagine on a platform usually replete with flamboyant uniforms. For artists, for example, swimsuits are simply works of art. So FIG sees our athletes only in light blue swimsuits, while men only have white shorts and tights. And the objects in the artists’ hands are also white.
There will be no teams, only individual performances. Our artistic gymnasts are current Olympic champions for both men and women. The strength of female artists in the group is well known.
Only those athletes who have not expressed support for the special operation in Ukraine and are not associated with the armed forces or national security agencies can be allowed to participate in competitions. Here, the losses, for example, in artistic gymnastics due to belonging to clubs are simply global. Starting with Nikita Nagorny and Arthur Dalaloyan, continuing with Angelina Melnikova, David Belyavsky, Denis Ablyazin, Anastasia Ilyankova…
A special commission will check the expression of possible support for the SVO through the athletes’ social networks: whether approval of Russia’s military actions was expressed through, for example, reposts or forwarded messages.
Regardless of whether everyone who agrees to these conditions is approved or not approved, the application to participate in the competition must be sent to the FIG for consideration. Moreover, by paying for it. The FIG did not ignore the experience World Athletics has accumulated over many years of charging money for neutral status with our athletes. Each athlete had to pay $250. If the status was not issued, the money was not returned, and the reasons for the refusal were not announced. FIG has not yet announced the amount, but it is clearly not 10 dollars: studying all the reposts, and even messages on social networks is hard work for officials.
Gymnasts need to be paid according to the criteria and doping testing. Before returning to competition, an athlete must pass at least one International Doping Testing Agency (ITA) test.
FIG delayed for a long time with the criteria and, it seems, took into account all the pitfalls from the example of other federations. She foresaw and protected herself even in the fact that the country organizing the event may not issue visas to neutral athletes to participate. Stated that it is not responsible and cannot be held liable for any actions or demands “imposed by any government, public authority or other organization that may prevent” an individual neutral athlete and officials from obtaining visas, permits, agreements, documentation and any other requirements. And stated that “the integrity of the competition cannot be challenged under any circumstances, even if a neutral individual athlete is unable to participate for the above reasons.”
A response to your application will be received within 30 days. And you need to submit it 60 days before the event. In case of violation of the criteria, the athlete will be deprived of neutral status, in addition, the federation may impose sanctions up to and including cancellation of the results. The decision of the committee dealing with applications for neutral status can be appealed within 10 days to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
What else? There is a line in defense of neutral athletes: in case of aggressive behavior towards athletes admitted to tournaments, the offender may be immediately disqualified.
The criteria were published the evening before the weekend; federations associated with gymnastics (artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, trampolining) will, of course, study them. But they did not come as a surprise. As the President of the All-Russian Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics Irina Viner recently said at the forum “Russia is a Sports Power”: we always hear one thing from international organizations – “lower, even lower, squat.”
Newspaper headline:
Platform without Russia
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