In the criticism: IOC boss Thomas Bach
Photo: imago/Wojciech Grabowski
“Devastating signal”, “mockery of the dead” – and world sport about to fall into chaos? Thomas Bach had expected a headwind, but what the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was bombarded with on the morning after the “Day of Shame” is unparalleled even in the era of the controversial sports official from Würzburg. Politicians, media and athletes from western parts of the world reacted with anger and horror to the IOC’s decision on the Russia question. USA Today newspaper awarded Bach’s IOC the “Gold Medal for Cowardice and Hypocrisy.”
Athlete representative Maximilian Klein considers the re-admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to be wrong, even under the conditions defined by the IOC. “If an aggressor who attacks a state is allowed to remain part of this movement, even though it is committed to peace, then that is mockery and ridicule for the victims of this war,” says Klein. “It also affects the Ukrainian athletes who die in the hail of bombs, whose sports facilities are destroyed and who have to fight.” Olga Charlan, a star fencer in her Ukrainian homeland, is devastated. ‘Everyone’s talking about the Russians. They have everything. Training in the best halls, in their giant palaces in Russia. A peaceful life in the family circle«, says the Olympic champion. “They’re about the opportunity to compete. We’re about survival.«
But the IOC decision also provoked criticism in Russia. Stanislav Pozdnyakov, President of Russia’s National Olympic Committee, complained about “discrimination” on state television and called Bach’s decision a “farce”.
Many sports competitions could degenerate into the same, including the Olympic Games in Paris. The example of Charlan and the Ukrainian fencers, who gave way to the sporting representatives of the aggressor in the World Cup and Olympic qualifiers, shows the path taken by the IOC in its decision for Russia. “It may be that the actual victims boycott and that they are forced to retreat,” says Klein.
Boycott. The bad word. One that no one likes to hear at the IOC. So far, however, there is little evidence that Western countries could join a possible withdrawal of Ukrainian athletes. Thomas Weikert rules out a German boycott “for fundamental reasons”. By the time of the Olympic Games next year, he is apparently hoping for the insight of the associations. After all, according to the head of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, it is a “recommendation” and “not yet a decision”.
Politics strikes a much sharper note. Representatives of various countries and parties condemned the line of the International Olympic Committee and vehemently demanded that the exclusion of the war-mongering nations from world sport be maintained. Poland’s Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk called Wednesday a “day of shame for the IOC”. The “re-admission” was “a mockery of the more than 220 dead Ukrainian coaches and athletes. Cheers, Mr. Bach,” wrote Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP) on Twitter.
The recommended steps may look good on paper, but the IOC has defined clear neutrality criteria and, above all, sharpened them – which is welcome. But the doubts about the implementation are massive.
The German athletes’ representative Maximilian Klein speaks of recommendations that could be ignored by the world associations. “This creates organized irresponsibility, as we have already observed in the Russian state doping scandal.” And the neutral status does not protect Russians and Belarusians from “the individual athletes being used by third parties for war propaganda”.
The decision also left behind anger, horror and doubts in many media – especially in Europe and the USA. The Italian press was particularly harsh on the IOC and its boss. “Pontius Pilatus is a dilettante compared to Bach,” wrote the Milan newspaper “Il Giornale” and made an unequivocal verdict: “The western boycott is just around the corner.” The ultima ratio will probably not come about. Nevertheless, stormy weeks and months lie ahead for Bach, the IOC and world sport.SID/nd
