Ukraine withdraws national team from Judo World Championships
Only a few days until the World Cup, but Ukraine’s Daria Bilodid will not compete
Which: AFP/ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT
The situation surrounding Russian and Belarusian athletes is putting international sport to the test. These athletes are now allowed to compete at the Judo World Championships under one condition. Ukraine draws consequences.
Dhe World Judo Championships will be held without Ukrainian athletes. This was preceded by the decision of the world association IJF on Sunday to grant judoka from Russia and Belarus a starting permit – on the condition that they have to compete as neutral individual athletes.
As a result, the Ukrainian federation withdrew its entire team from the title fights from May 7th to 14th in Qatar on Monday. The explanatory statement states that “the majority of the Russian team consists of athletes who are actively serving in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and are part of the army that attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022.”
One sees “no neutrality, equal conditions and a ‘bridge to peace’, as stated in the IJF resolution on the participation of Russian and Belarusian teams in the World Championships in Doha”.
Ukraine sharply criticized the decision to allow participation as neutral individual athletes. You see here a decision “that contradicts the recent recommendations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of March 28, in which the IOC says that the status of a neutral athlete can only be granted to those athletes who are not part of the military”.
DOSB sees unity in world sport at risk
The situation surrounding Russian and Belarusian athletes is a crucial test for international sport. In general and especially with a view to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The DOSB sees international sport challenged to adapt “to political climate change” in the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine. “The new world order will be a conflict order for the foreseeable future: with Russia, but maybe also with China,” said DOSB CEO Torsten Burmester of the German Press Agency. “In view of this situation, sport must ask itself what role it wants to play on the changed playing field.”
German sport is currently resisting the return of athletes from Russia and Belarus to international competitions. However, if the calculated aggression changes coexistence worldwide, “we have to check whether the long-term exclusion of athletes is right and whether the integration of sport in political sanctions is a suitable means,” said Burmester.
There is a risk that the benefits in the political field are manageable, “but the possible damage to sporting values and the Olympic Charter is unforeseeable”.
“As members of this Olympic family, we see that unity in world sport is at risk. Sport is not apolitical, it has to be political in order to assert its legitimate interests,” stressed Burmester. “And he will always have to deal with the political realities. Perhaps we need even clearer rules of the game and less ad hoc action in world sport in view of the entry into a new age of systemic conflicts,” said the DOSB board member.
