The Olympics in Paris will take place without major Russian participation. © APA/afp / EMMANUEL DUNAND

Olympics 2024 and the problem with Russia

Dealing with Russia is a real test for international sport, as is the case now, immediately before the Olympic Games in Paris.

July 16, 2024

From: apa

Since the start of the Russian attacks on Ukraine in February 2022, athletes from Russia and Belarus have been excluded from a large part of international sporting competitions. This ban applies almost universally to team sports, while a controversial neutrality rule applies to individual athletes. This also applies to the Summer Games in Paris.

Whether they gave up their Olympic dream of their own free will or were forced to do so will probably never be known. According to official information, only 16 athletes from Russia and 17 from Belarus will take part in the Summer Games. They will compete in the competitions from July 26 under a neutral flag and without an anthem; they will not be allowed to attend the opening ceremony on the Seine. Their performances will not be included in the medal table. Politicians and top sports officials will not be allowed access to the competition venues.

16 instead of 335 starters

At the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games, 335 Russian athletes won 71 medals. There could have been more athletes in France this time too. After long debates about their participation in the world's largest sporting event, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) granted 36 starting places under certain conditions. Several Russian sports associations did not accept this invitation. These include sports such as judo, wrestling, shooting and gymnastics, in which Russia usually dominates. They complained about humiliating conditions.

To be admitted, athletes must have no connection to the army or security forces and must not have actively shown support for the war in Ukraine. As an additional requirement, the IOC required a written commitment to the Olympic Charter and thus to the so-called peace mission of the Olympic movement.

Daniil Medvedev is the star of the Russian Olympic squad. © ANSA / TOLGA AKMEN

Abdulrashid Sadulaev, the two-time Olympic champion in wrestling, failed the selection process monitored by an IOC commission. He is said to have taken part in a mass rally in Moscow at which Vladimir Putin defended the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Wrestling Federation called the decision "unsportsmanlike" and said it aimed to undermine the team spirit. Russia generally considers the requirements to be "illegal, unfair and unacceptable," said Stanislav Pozdnyakov, head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

“The conditions that were imposed there – without a flag, without an anthem – were unpatriotic,” wrote wrestler Veronika Chúmikova to the news agency Reuters in a WhatsApp message. The cancellation of their participation was their own decision. Tennis player Andrei Rublev and cyclist Aleksandr Vlasov were also among the 20 athletes who did not want to compete in Paris. Of those who did take part, the tennis players around Wimbledon semi-finalist Daniil Medvedev make up the largest group with seven athletes.

Russian athletes receive money

According to Russian sources, the athletes have received compensation. 245 million rubles (around 200 million euros) were paid to 1,92 athletes, the state news agency reported RIAThe money would have been given to those who were unable to take part in international competitions to qualify – and to those who were not granted neutral status to participate in the Games.

IOC President Thomas Bach in 2019 in a photo with Vladimir Putin. © APA/afp / SERGEI BOBYLYOV

The hope for an Olympic peace - an idea of ​​the Olympic movement, which involves a ceasefire immediately before, during and after the games - will in all probability not be fulfilled. The mutual distrust between Kiev and Moscow seems to be too great. Putin ignored this idea several times, and the Russian president carried out his political maneuvers precisely when the world public was supposedly focused on the sporting mega-event.

Little chance of an Olympic ceasefire

On February 24, 2022 - a few days after the end of the Winter Olympics in China - Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. In 2014, just days after the end of the Winter Games in its own country, Russia began the illegal annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. And in 2008, on the very day of the opening of the Summer Games in Beijing, Russian tanks rolled into the region of South Ossetia, which under international law belongs to Georgia.

Despite the war, Ukraine will send around 100 athletes to Paris. "It is already a victory that we can take part under the conditions of the invasion," said Vadym Gutzait, the president of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee. Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi called on his compatriots to keep a "cool head" and not to be intimidated by the expected provocations of their Russian opponents.