Only apparently on top: The Ukrainian wrestler Oksana Livach is taken out by her Russian opponent Yekaterina Poleschtschuk (below). Symbol of Russia’s athletes who are gradually returning to world sport.
Photo: imago/Kadir Caliskan
Torsten Burmester remembers the Thursday on which the war between Russia and Ukraine finally broke out. “I sat in Berlin with Donata Hopfen, who was still managing director of the German Football League at the time,” says the CEO of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) in an interview with nd. After the initial shock, it quickly became clear to him and Hopfen: “This will also have a significant impact on sport. And sports will be active.” Indeed, Russia’s invasion was immediately condemned, and the following weekend hundreds of thousands of Germans showed solidarity with Ukraine not only on the streets but also on sports fields and arenas.
The DOSB set up an aid fund; This meant that top Ukrainian athletes who had been displaced were able to continue training in Germany. Recreational sports clubs also worked integratively with refugees. »These programs still exist today. There was a great wave of solidarity that, thank God, has not subsided,” reports Burmester.
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As in politics, sympathy for the Ukrainians was quickly accompanied by sanctions in sport: almost all world sports associations, even those that had long courted Russian President Vladimir Putin, now banned his country’s athletes from their competitions. Likewise those from Belarus. The European Football Union withdrew Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg from the Champions League final. Four days after the start of the war, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended isolating Russia in world sports.
Two years later, the war continues unabated. The shooting is still going on and Russian tanks are still rolling across Ukrainian soil. But at least a few Russian athletes have returned to the international stage. Officially they operate as neutral athletes. Not everyone likes that. The IOC’s half-backward role was heavily criticized, especially not by the Ukrainians, but also in Germany.
The DOSB has nevertheless adopted the new approach. Burmester defends the decision that his association made public at the general meeting in December 2023: “We have always said that sport has a unifying role that goes beyond the boundaries of worldviews, religions and ideologies,” says the top official. This doesn’t always have the desired effect. The German-German sports exchange before reunification definitely contributed to the rapprochement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR.
This time, however, a legal argument was decisive for the change of heart: “You always have to consider who sanctions affect: Are they violating the individual rights of Russian athletes, or do you also have to look at the victim’s perspective, i.e. that of the Ukrainian athletes?” said Burmester. On this issue, the IOC and DOSB followed a recommendation to allow individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete again under a neutral flag.
The DOSB itself had issued a report in which Erlangen law professor Patricia Wiater came to the conclusion that the original complete exclusion was still justified if it protected both the Ukrainian athletes and the integrity of the competition from instrumentalization by Russian war propaganda. “The important thing is that athletes are not responsible for the actions of their governments,” says Burmester, explaining why Wiater’s recommendation is no longer being followed. The independent representation of athletes in Germany, however, stuck to their no. “We find it questionable when world sport is based on a supposed majority opinion instead of legal argumentation,” says its managing director Johannes Herber to the “nd”.
Burmester confirms that there is “a clear majority in the world associations for the IOC’s recommendations. And we accept this because it emphasizes the unifying role of sport. Above all, the Ukrainians have promised to continue taking part in competitions even if neutral athletes return from Russia. Previously, Ukrainian politicians and officials had tried for a long time to prevent the Russians from resuming with a boycott threat – without success.
Burmester naturally contradicts the accusation that the company has given in under the pressure of the majority, also because the DOSB will soon be applying to host the Olympic Games again. In fact, the alternative was much worse: “Perhaps there would have been a majority for the unrestricted admission of Russian athletes.” In South America and Asia, the conflict is only seen as a regional conflict that does not justify any restrictions on athletes. “I’m glad that wasn’t implemented,” said the DOSB boss.
The current solution, however, sends a clear message: Russia’s war of aggression continues to be condemned. There are still massive sanctions: no international championships are taking place in Russia. The Russian Olympic Committee remains suspended. Teams are still suspended.
That’s not enough for gymnast Lukas Dauser. »It was decided at the time that athletes from Belarus and Russia would not be allowed to take part. And the war is still in full swing. The question arises to me: Why should these athletes be allowed back now?” says the parallel bars world champion. IOC President Thomas Bach had argued that the original exclusion was a “protective measure” because the integrity of the sport was at risk. Finally, in February 2022, many countries threatened to deny entry visas to Russian athletes. Funding should also be withdrawn from our own athletes if they compete against Russians. Since both were never implemented in tennis, for example, where Russian professionals were never excluded, the sanctions could be relaxed. “I never saw the exclusion as a protective measure but rather as a punitive measure,” replies Dauser. “It’s new to me that the IOC had other reasons,” says the 30-year-old from Halle (Saale) to “nd”.
In the 150 days until the Olympic Games in Paris, we will now be closely monitoring how the IOC criteria are being adhered to. Accordingly, athletes from Russia must prove that they have been tested for doping in order to compete. According to the World Anti-Doping Agency Wada, around 10,500 samples were actually taken in the country between January and November 2023 alone, including in so-called closed cities to which foreign inspectors recently had no access.
However, in response to nd’s inquiry, Wada now confirms: “These tests were carried out by Rusada.” The Russian Anti-Doping Agency is internationally suspended because it was involved in large-scale manipulations as part of a state doping system. Therefore, athlete representative Herber also identifies a “general skepticism” among German athletes: “There is great concern that in the chaos of war testing will not be carried out closely enough and perhaps only after announcement.” Lukas Dauser also confirms: “I have confidence in the doping controls “It’s not particularly big in Russia.”
The samples are analyzed in laboratories abroad. However, neither Wada nor the IOC can guarantee whether they were taken in accordance with the rules. The International Testing Agency has “collected more than 1,000 samples in Russia and Belarus,” writes Wada. “But in the end I don’t have much choice other than to hope that the athletes were tested properly,” said gymnastics world champion Dauser.
And what about the neutrality of Russian athletes? »Of course we have to check whether they took part in war propaganda. I assume that the IOC will organize this in cooperation with the international associations,” says DOSB board member Burmester, optimistic that no pro-war supporters will compete in Paris. Athlete representative Herber is more skeptical: “There is little transparency about how this is checked. Our own research and the publications of Ukrainian accounts on social media show that there were a lot of rule violations. “So there were clear military connections, but they were then tolerated.”
Such military connections are an exclusion criterion. Lukas Dauser thinks that’s right. His sports funding in Germany is paid for by the Bundeswehr, similar to the system in Russia. It has also taken part in war operations that were not legitimized by the United Nations. What if he had to give up his Olympic dream because of this? »If such a case were to actually occur, I would be free to speak out against the war. Just like the Russian athletes now,” says Dauser. »But in the gymnastics world alone there are several athletes from Russia who are really making propaganda for the war. For me that makes a huge difference.«
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