Nightmare scenario for the IOC
Russia issue leads to boycott debate
01/27/2023 1:17 p.m
Russian athletes are about to return to world sport, and Ukraine is threatening to boycott the 2024 Olympic Games. The IOC is also facing opposition from Germany. For the association boss Thomas Bach, it is a scenario that he never wanted to deal with again.
Variety was on the agenda for the weekend. Maybe even a distraction. In any case, Thomas Bach had planned a trip to the Thuringian Forest. But at the Luge World Championships in Oberhof, Bach will hardly be able to avoid the bad word “boycott”. The wind blew in the IOC President’s face after he and his executive opened the door wide for Russia’s return to world sport.
“Our position remains unchanged – as long as the war in Ukraine continues, Russian and Belarusian athletes should not take part in international competitions,” wrote Ukrainian Minister of Sport Vadym Hutzait on Facebook: “If we are not heard, I do not exclude the possibility that we will boycott the Olympics and refuse to take part in them.” Boycott: Bach’s trauma. The West boycotted Moscow in 1980, and the Eastern bloc counter-boycotted four years later in Los Angeles. Sport, Bach decided at the time, must be absolutely neutral “in order to be able to survive, to be able to do justice to its function as a bridge builder, but it cannot be apolitical”.
The bridges are bombed
The bridges between Russia and the Ukraine no longer exist, they have been bombed out – like numerous places, halls, training facilities in the Ukraine and thus the basis for a peaceful and fair competition. The Russian regime with Bach’s former partner Vladimir Putin is responsible for this. The IOC is also aware of this, which sharply condemned the invasion of the Russian army on February 24, just three days after the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Games, and recommended sanctions. And that has been pushing the reintegration of Russian and Belarusian athletes for months. Subject to conditions, as “neutral athletes” – with a guaranteed rejection of the atrocities of their state leadership.
“Unacceptable for our country,” said Hutzajt – and knows allies at his side. Among them: Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. In the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” she spoke of a “completely wrong path” that the IOC was taking. “Sport should be clear in its condemnation of the brutal war that Putin is waging against the Ukrainian civilian population,” Faeser demanded. “The international sports federations remain responsible for positioning themselves clearly.” The IOC has passed on this responsibility, pointing out that an “overwhelming majority” supports the return under “strict conditions”.
The thought of competing against Russians is difficult
This also includes the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), which defends the mission of world sport to “bring people together in peaceful competition”. With the necessary sanctions, with a functioning anti-doping system and a clearly visible neutrality of Russian and Belarusian athletes and their distance from the war – but as soon as possible, since the qualifications for Paris 2024 begin.
“We haven’t gotten to that point yet,” said Maximilian Klein from the independent association Athleten Deutschland on Friday in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. The plan comes “at the wrong time. Russia is continuing the brutal war of aggression and intensifying its attacks on the Ukrainian civilian population,” said Klein: “That’s why we can’t talk about allowing Russian athletes again.”
The IOC’s “hasty decision” sends a “devastating signal. A signal that a state that repeatedly disregards the values and norms of the international community and has been breaking the values of sport for years can simply continue without consequences”. In conversations with German athletes, the word “boycott” has already been mentioned. “Many find it difficult to think about playing against the Russians now,” reported Klein.