The International Olympic Committee (IOC) accused Russia on Tuesday March 19 of “politicize sport” by launching its “Friendship Games” from September 2024, a new competition competing with the Olympic Games, which also plans a winter edition.
The IOC, which authorized the participation of Russian athletes in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games only under a neutral banner and on the condition that they did not support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, requests, in A declarationto the world of sport and to the governments invited by Moscow “to reject any participation and support” to this event.
Announced several months ago, the first edition of the Summer Friendship Games should, “a priori, stay in Moscow and Yekaterinburg” in September 2024, recalls the organization based in Lausanne, while the Winter Friendship Games are planned for 2026 in Sochi, which hosted the 2014 Olympic Games.
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These two initiatives are in addition to the Future Games, organized in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, from February 21 to March 3, mixing traditional disciplines and e-sport, and the BRICS Games, scheduled in the same city from February 12 to 23. June, and which must welcome “athletes from more than 50 countries”according to Russian authorities.
“Diplomatic offensive”
The IOC does not blame the Russians for creating multi-sport competitions outside its aegis – since several already exist, including the Commonwealth Games or the Francophonie Games – but for doing so with “a very sustained diplomatic offensive”through direct contact with “governments around the world”.
“In order to make their purely political motivation even more obvious, the latter deliberately bypass the sports organizations of their target countries”insists the authority, which sees in it a “cynical attempt” to exploit athletes “for political propaganda purposes”in violation of the Olympic charter.
Furthermore, the IOC accuses Moscow of“a complete lack of respect for global anti-doping standards and the integrity of competitions”recalling the concerns expressed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) about the Friendship Games, in view of the institutionalized cheating put in place by the Russian authorities during the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014.
“This position is reinforced by the fact that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency is currently not in compliance” to the world anti-doping code, “there are currently no WADA-accredited laboratories in Russia and overall confidence in the Russian anti-doping system remains low”adds the organization.
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