Croatia has denied visas to nine members of the Russian national gymnastics delegation.
Croatia says the applications were refused because insufficient information was provided about the purpose of travel for those nine individuals. Russia disputes this explanation, arguing that more than 60 other gymnasts, coaches and officials received visas after submitting applications containing the same information.
Significantly, three of the gymnasts denied visas — Angelina Melnikova, Anna Kalmykova and Viktoria Listunova — could reasonably have been expected to contend for medals in Zagreb.
This has inevitably led to allegations that the visa refusals were intended to weaken Russia’s team. At full strength, Russia’s women’s team would have been among the strongest — and quite possibly the strongest — competing at these European Championships. However, there is currently no evidence establishing that the refusals were deliberately designed to influence the sporting outcome.
The important distinction is that a visa decision determines whether someone may enter a country; it does not determine whether an athlete is eligible to compete.
The IOC, FIG and UEG had already removed the requirement for these Russian athletes to compete under neutral status. Russia is therefore returning to competition as a national team, in Russian colours and under the Russian flag and anthem.
This leaves an important question. If the nine applications genuinely contained inadequate information, the refusals may have a straightforward administrative explanation. If, however, substantially identical applications were treated differently without good reason, the circumstances deserve proper scrutiny.
International championships also depend upon eligible athletes being able to reach the host country. Visa difficulties affect not only the athletes concerned but coaches, federations, organisers and supporters, and can damage both the competition and confidence in the fairness of international sport.
For that reason, the circumstances surrounding these refusals should be examined by the relevant governing bodies. The FIG and UEG should establish what happened, whether the visa requirements were applied consistently, and whether any further action is appropriate.
Russia’s WAG team for Zagreb
Whatever the controversy surrounding the missing athletes, the Russian senior women’s team competing at the European Gymnastics Championships in Zagreb this week is:
Elizaveta Us
Liudmilla Roschina
Zlata Osokina
Alena Glotova
Alexandra (Sasha) Anoufriyeva
This is still a good team, and hopefully they will be able to put the circumstances surrounding their arrival in Zagreb behind them and perform at their best.
They are all young gymnasts, and they deserve to be supported for the competition they are actually there to contest.
Please follow RRG — Rewriting Russian Gymnastics here, on Blogger and on Facebook for coverage of the Championships.
As yet, we do not know the identity of Russia’s MAG gymnasts for Zagreb.
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