End of a male friendship? Bach (l.) and Putin here at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi Image: dpa
Betrayed, betrayed, insulted? IOC President Thomas Bach is suddenly sharpening his tone against Vladimir Putin and Russian sport. But why now?
Turquoise green was the color of the week at the International Olympic Committee. On Tuesday, the IOC presented the flag symbol that will accompany Russian and Belarusian athletes through the Olympic Games in Paris as so-called “individual neutral athletes”. The turquoise green French acronym AIN stands in a white circle that is surrounded by a turquoise green area. The IOC has had an anthem composed that sounds as uplifting as you would expect from theme tunes, somewhere between Star Wars and a dream ship.
At least not like Tchaikovsky, who was rather moderately successful in neutralizing Russians who had been sanctioned in Tokyo and Beijing in 2021 and 2022. And the ice hockey players who won Olympic gold in Pyeongchang competed as “Olympic athletes from Russia” in Soviet red jerseys and belted out the Russian anthem to the Soviet tune after the final. It was a politically neutral performance by athletes, which was what Vladimir Putin wanted. Thanks and congratulations came from the Kremlin.
