The IOC puts Russia on its knees before the Olympics: not refugees, no rights at all

The brain is having an internal battle. We rush about. Not the first month and painfully. Those who broke through to the world championships in summer sports bring medals. We are very happy with them. How else? For the second time in two weeks, judoist Tamerlan Bashaev defeated the world number one in the weight category over 100 kg at the Grand Slam International Tournament. And on the same evening, Matvey Kanikovsky convincingly won (up to 100 kg). Not strength – strength, how not to rejoice? And for us, every athlete admitted to an international start, even those left without medals, is like a victory.

All are in neutral status. It doesn’t seem to interfere with wrestling. It seems that instinct is working: we will and must prove our strength on the mat, platform, in the water, wherever possible. Show this strength of ours. Against all odds.

Does such an instinct have the right to exist today? And do our empathy and pain mean that the neutral status for the Olympic Games has already taken root in the soul without question. Already legitimized as a fact that must be accepted. Also, forgive someone. Or will you have to ask for forgiveness from yourself?

We rejoice in the permissions and opportunities. We mourn for those who were not allowed. We are indignant. We are always in a battle with ourselves, therefore we often do not notice how the ordinary turns into shameful.

Here, the 18-year-old cyclist was not given this already desired neutral status for performance. The guy is talented, he signed a contract with a professional team performing in the continental road tour. But the International Cycling Union announced its non-compliance with the rules for allowing our and Belarusian athletes to participate in tournaments under the auspices of the UCI.

The story is not new: suspended due to likes. An explanation followed from the rider’s father. He said he considered the suspension a misunderstanding. Like, after the next race in Italy, he received a letter from the UCI: there is information – he put likes on social networks to posts about the political situation. The racer protests, sent a letter to the International Union, in which he explained that he had nothing to do with such likes. Dad, following the “misunderstanding”, sums up: the account must have been hacked.

Are we now going to justify ourselves for every position expressed? On a blue eye and not even realizing how embarrassing it is. Even for a hint of a position to make excuses? Like, of course, can be considered an eloquent argument, but it will also come to the point that one can also be punished for its absence. While the admission criteria were vague, of course, there was no glimmer, but still there was a flash of hope: after all, the international federations would not come up so literally to the recommended criteria of the IOC. Can you imagine the amount of work to count likes on social networks? Not sick… Healthy. It’s just what they wanted. And they did.

The postponed life syndrome is being imposed on Russia: wait for your Olympic well-being with full rights. Wait. What do you want? Wait, you don’t deserve it. This sports life is not yours, write a draft, we will edit it.

The Olympic Charter does not work, it is no longer a secret to anyone. Trampled perky and with taste – also not information even for thought. A given that would be pushed back to where it came from … But is it possible – to push it somewhere? Maybe. After years. May be. In theory.

All year we fight in the same thoughts: they will come up with something for us to perform at the Olympic Games. No, maybe something else. And yet – it is possible that this is also … And, realizing that they will not leave you alone anyway, it turns out that we choose according to the principle of the least evil. And even such a flint as Alexander Karelin argues: if everything stops at the restrictions that were in Pyeongchang, where we performed as Olympic athletes from Russia, accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s composition, you can go under these conditions.

Almost refugees?

Over the weekend, a hurricane swept through with the filing of a certain source of information noise: we will be allowed to the Olympic Games as practically refugees, the decision has been made. That is, we will not be refugees, but the rules for the performance of this particular category of athletes will be taken as the basis for admission.

The topic of refugees from Russia has already surfaced at the Games. That French aunt, she is also the mayor of Paris (the mayor does not stand on ceremony with us, so we can do without much respect), apparently, she took part in someone’s unkind discussions of the fate of our sport. Back in February, she blurted out: the Russians can compete at the Summer Olympics as part of the refugee team. The same was proposed at the official level in Poland: it is necessary to create a team, in which Belarusian and Russian dissidents will be able to compete at the 2024 Games in Paris.

The Refugee Olympic Team was created in October 2015. And already at the 2016 Games, a dozen athletes competed, selected by the NOCs of those countries in which there were worthy candidates, in order to show at least some decent level at the Games. The group did not shine with the results, but 46 athletes have already competed in Tokyo 2020. Special training camps are still operating today, a group of 53 athletes is preparing for Paris, each representing the national federation of the country of current residence. The Olympic qualification of refugees does not apply, the Olympic Solidarity Foundation finances the preparation.

Many after the informational noise of the day off were excited. Refugees? What a nightmare! And the same source also listed the alleged requirements for the performance of Russia: “neutral athletes” under the flag of the IOC. In equipment that the IOC designers will develop. Applications for participation with all the ensuing checks from the commissions – individual, ROC or domestic federations are not in business at all. After the approved application – a ban on speaking at domestic starts, no financial or even organizational support from the organizations that the athletes represent. The IOC is ready to finance, however, only the participation of an athlete in the Olympic Games (travel, accommodation, meals). Should a coach be with an athlete? Not a fact from the word “absolutely”.

But the shocking word in combination with Russia is just a trigger that made it even more painful to disperse the already exhausted topic. Refugees are selected according to their own rules, and trained, and are under the supervision of the NOC and federations. But the neutral status implies almost all of the above, otherwise it will already be some other, dependent on someone. And we have had all this information for a long time. We recall: the IOC recommended that representatives of the two countries be admitted to tournaments, all in a neutral status, an application for which is submitted by athletes individually, team events are not allowed. And only those athletes who are not connected with the army, who do not receive funding from the state, who have not spoken out anywhere and never in support of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, should be allowed to compete. The form should be plain, no paraphernalia.

And, playing democracy, Thomas Bach stuck to the same neutral line in every statement. He said that the vast majority of sportsmen supported the initiative of the Olympic Summit, which, they say, asked the IOC to find an opportunity for the return of athletes from the two countries to international competitions. But at the same time, to maintain sanctions against their states that violated the Olympic truce. Therefore, everyone will be deprived of a state person.

Drafts are ready

And today’s admissions to international starts according to the recommended criteria of the IOC – when some federations simply clean up our lists, throwing out Olympic champions and leaders from them – this is a test of the Olympic pen. That’s right – in drafts. The approved lists will go further. And will be further reduced.

“There are no names known to the world in the lists,” sounded from our fencing a few months ago, two Olympic champions were thrown out of potential participants in taekwondo tournaments … Should the games be exclusively for the best? Should I bring a second or third team to the Olympics? “This is absolutely wrong, this is some kind of amateur art, not a sport. The principle “the main thing is not victory, but participation” is definitely not for us here,” says the coach of our divers, Svetlana Moiseeva.

And the president of the FVP, four-time Olympic champion Vladimir Salnikov, explains that his position on playing at the Olympics in a neutral status is extremely clear: “I don’t understand what it is and why Russian athletes are subjected to such punishment.” And the position of the IOC is perplexing for the famous swimmer: if you want to invite athletes from all over the world to the Olympic Games, do it without any conditions. “The current actions of the leaders of the Olympic movement can only be explained by their desire to force Russia to boycott the competition.”

Should it be up to the eligible athletes themselves to make the decision to compete? Or should it be free-willed for everyone? Alone or all together? Boycott or rejection? These are questions that are becoming more acute every day. There are no official criteria for admission of our athletes to the Olympic Games yet. In any case, they are not represented. And any of the proposed options can be thrown into reality.

Vyacheslav Fetisov believes that there should not be a single decision at the state level. “All this lawlessness against Russian athletes was created in order to split our society.” And it is necessary to make such decisions that will not allow this to be done, the athletes themselves need to weigh everything, discuss and indicate their position.

Will there be those athletes who want to participate in the Games under tough conditions to keep love for the country only deep in their hearts? Perhaps there are. But not the fact that they will be allowed. To the heart, of course, the inspectors do not pick it up, but turning on the calculator is quite a feasible task. How many athletes are the IOC going to pay for? For how many neutral athletes will Thomas Bach want to get a hat from his friendly colleagues? After all, the IOC, it turns out, will let the Russians to the Games, and even pay for their stay. A perfect occasion for a new wave of hysteria.

We don’t need the Olympics?

We have learned to be patient and wait. Just like now. The IOC may suddenly discuss the issue of allowing Russia to the Games at a meeting of the executive committee, which will be held from June 20 to 22. (An extraordinary session of the IOC will take place in two days.) Or maybe not discuss it yet. And hold out, as promised, until a decision is made “not earlier than a year before the Games”, that is, until July.

But now we must learn not to wait for anything. It is allowed to record world records in Russia, but no one can take away domestic starts. This is no consolation. And we cannot return the Olympic happiness taken away from someone forever or postponed. But this is the only way to save the sport and the leaders who have entered now or are approaching the peak of their talent. And those who can lead the young, pushing them to competition.

For them, who can win here and now, it’s a shame especially. For people like Kliment Kolesnikov, who is waiting for the confirmation of the world record from the international federation. Like Evgenia Chikunova, who amazed the world this spring with her seconds on the water. For sports gymnasts, current Olympic champions in the women’s and men’s teams. Starting from the platform ace Nikita Nagorny, who also became a personal winner of the Games, but who has not yet exhausted his huge potential, to say: good, now only the All-Russian Federation of Physical Sports, which I headed, is enough for me. And ending with 18-year-old Daniel Marinov, who, beating titled gymnasts within the country, never once in his life – never! – did not compete at international competitions. Athletes who have been strangled by a neutral status for many years, with the inflexible Maria Lasitskene and Anzhelika Sidorova. Fencing with its mighty fusion of experience and youth, taekwondo, exploding with fortitude, golden synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics… For everyone who Paris-2024 is ready to refuse.

We need the Olympic Games, we don’t have to pretend that they don’t exist or that they are somehow not the same anymore. They are. And in the sports component, they are exactly the kind that every athlete dreams of getting into. But if we are left with no choice, then we just want to start living. Yes, with our already announced Friendship Games – summer and winter, they are not an alternative at all, they are simply very necessary. Yes, even without the Olympic Games. But – to live, and not endlessly rush about, waiting for goodness from the IOC, holding a fig in his pocket.

… The International Olympic Committee released a collection of clothes with quotes from Pierre de Coubertin: for example, “All sports for all people”, “Olympism is a state of mind.” What wonderful people and quotes.