With the European Championships taking place this week, there is one thing on my mind - gymnastics. And the big question for me is - will Russia be able to take part in the Olympics? It's looking increasingly unlikely - Europeans were the last chance to qualify as a team, and of course they aren't in Antalya this week. Russia has been invited to participate in the Asian Games, but this doesn't appear to be a valid route to qualification as a team, either. The only chance may be for gymnasts to qualify individually - but with an FIG ban on all Russians at international competition, this looks unlikely, too.
We are all waiting for a decision from the IOC - can Russia be at the 2024 Olympics? Yet it seems to me that this option has already been ruled out. I get the impression that the four leading MAG in Russia - Nagorny, Dalaloyan, Ablyazin and Belyavski - have all but given up on the possibility. Their demeanour seems almost to say, 'what kind of Olympics will it be without us?'.
I agree. A gymnastics competition without Russia is like beef without salt. And since when did politics matter to sport? I am old enough to remember South Africa's exclusion from the world of culture and sport - but that was because teams and audiences were segregated - you couldn't participate in sports without endorsing the very political policy - apartheid - that made South Africa so unwelcome in the international community. There is no similar sporting discrimination in Russia, nor does supporting Russian sport make you a supporter of the war against Ukraine. So why involve the IOC and the other sporting federations? Their job is to make sports work, and to promote harmony between nations and people, not to make judgements about international politics.
And why pick on Russia? Other countries have made aggressive interventions in places not their own. For example, Britain got involved in Iraq not so very long ago; the USA was involved in a very controversial war with Vietnam. Olympic exclusions were never suggested for these countries.
You might say: sport is a state sponsored activity in Russia - you would be right, and President Putin does use it shamelessly to promote investment and interest in his country. But don't we all? I can't think of any leading country that doesn't have some level of state interest in its sporting machine, and that doesn't like to leverage sport in some way or another, as a way of promoting tourism, a way of disseminating national values. And some of those state interventions have been incredibly undesirable - for example, the way that the FBI failed to investigate allegations of abuse in USA gymnastics.
So why even involve the IOC, the FIG, why even ask the question : 'should Russia participate in the Olympic Games?', in view of their unprovoked act of aggression against Ukraine. Sports is surely a mechanism for the good; it promotes interest and friendship in other countries, exactly the kind of bonding that is needed in a time of war. And the contumely that we are throwing at Russia at the moment is very one-sided, isn't it?
What do you think? Please contribute an article if you would like to argue your point of view : send it to me at elizabethbooth136@btinternet.com.
Absolutely agree. I don't necessarily oppose a Russian ban in theory. But it would have to be applicable equally. And it's not. If it were the USA would be out - not just for Vietnam or Iraq but for literally hundreds of invasions, coups, and color revolutions. But they don't because its America and the people they do it to live in Asia and Africa and Latin America.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Israel gets to compete anywhere is a scandal. So yeah. This is just Western politicking.