And the international sports boycott sends a powerful message to sports-obsessed Russians that the Kremlin’s propagandists can’t easily cover up. The worldwide sports boycott intensified following a request by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday to keep athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus out of sporting events around the world.
The IOC has usually been reluctant to punish athletes for the decisions of their governments. But this time there were no fig leaves, as was the case at last month’s Beijing Winter Games. Russian athletes participated as the Russian Olympic Committee and the country’s flag and national anthem were banned from awards ceremonies. This is not another doping scandal; Russia is committing war crimes on a massive scale in Ukraine and the IOC couldn’t ignore it.
The IOC decided that “in order to protect the integrity of global sports competitions” to recommend that athletes and officials from Russia and its ally Belarus be barred from participating in international competitions. “The current war in Ukraine, however, puts the Olympic Movement in a dilemma. While athletes from Russia and Belarus would be able to continue to participate in sports events, many athletes from Ukraine are prevented from doing so because of the attack on their country,” the IOC’s Executive Board said.
The IOC also noted that Russia had violated a so-called “Olympic Truce,” a call for peace over a period from a week before the Olympics through a week after the Paralympics, which runs through March 13. That led the IOC to revoke an honorary gold Olympic Order it had awarded Vladimir Putin and two top deputies.
Putin’s timeline apparently didn’t allow for any such delay which would have put the Russian invasion in the middle of the muddy season in Ukraine. He only held off until a few days after the Beijing Winter Olympics ended on Feb. 20.
RUSSIA GETS LAST-MINUTE BAN FROM WINTER PARALYMPIC GAMES
With athletes already gathered in Beijing for the Paralympic Winter Games, the IOC supported having the games proceed, even with athletes from Russia and Belarus, because of the potential legal complications. That sparked an immediate reaction from the U.S., British, and Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees, which insisted that Russian and Belarusian athletes be excluded from the games.
On Wednesday, the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) reaffirmed that the rules did not allow it to ban Russia and Belarus from competing. Instead, the IPC said the two countries would take part as neutrals, without any flags or other national symbols.
But a day later, on the eve of Friday’s opening ceremony, the IPC reversed its decision after an unprecedented protest by athletes and their countries’ delegations who declared they were ready to pull out of the games. IPC President Andrew Parsons said there was “a very volatile environment” in the Athletes Village. He added:
"It was a very rapid escalation which we did not think was going to happen. We did not think that entire delegations, or even teams within delegations, will withdraw, will boycott, will not participate.
"The war has now come to these Games and behind the scenes many governments are having an influence on our cherished event," he added. "We were trying to protect the Games from war."
UKRAINE PARALYMPIC OFFICIAL: ”IT’S A MIRACLE THAT WE’RE HERE”
Not surprisingly, Ukraine’s team did not arrive in Beijing until Wednesday, At a news conference on Thursday, Ukrainian Paralympic Committee chairman Valeriy Sushkevych said, “It’s a miracle that we’re here.”
Sushkevych, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, said he had to sleep on the floor of a bus for two days, while other team members escaped missiles to get out of the country. “Not coming here would have been taking the easy option. ... Our presence at the Paralympics is not merely a presence; this is a sign that Ukraine is and will remain a country,” Sushkevych told reporters.
And team members are competing under the pressure of worrying about the fate of loved ones back home and what they would return to after the games.
Parsons opened the games with an unusually powerful statement: “I want—I must—begin with a message of peace as the leader of our organization. I am horrified at what is taking place in the world right now. The 21st century is a time for dialogue and diplomacy, not war and hate,” Parsons said.
Meanwhile, the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) confirmed its delegation would be leaving China, reserving its right to appeal the decision “to the appropriate international and national court” at a future date. “This decision is politically motivated, it contradicts all the Paralympic movement’s postulates and clearly indicates that double standards, unfortunately, have become the norm for modern sports," the RPC said, according to a report by Russia’s official Tass news agency.
Back in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the Paralympics ban. "The situation is monstrous, of course. This is a disgrace for the International Paralympic Committee," said Peskov, who as one of Putin’s top deputies has been individually sanctioned by the U.S. and other countries.
No, Dmitry, what’s monstrous are the war crimes being committed on a daily basis by Russian troops. And it’s a disgrace to shell civilian neighborhoods and even a nuclear power plant.
NO SPORTS FOR YOU, VLAD
Putin himself probably doesn’t care much about the Paralympics. But this week, Russia’s No. 1 sports fan has seen his country become a pariah in the sports world. Putin’s favorite sport is ice hockey.
On Monday, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) banned Russia from every age category in international play, including the men’s world championship scheduled to begin on May 13 in Finland. Russia also lost its right to host the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship.
“We were incredibly shocked to see the images that have come out of Ukraine,” said IIHF President Luc Tardif. “I have been in close contact with members of the Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine, and we hope, for all Ukrainians, that this conflict can be resolved in a peaceful way and without the need for further violence.”
It got even more personal when World Taekwondo stripped Putin of his honorary ninth-degree black belt, the highest level one can achieve in taekwondo, The Washington Post reported. Martial artist and movie star Chuck Norris only has an eighth-degree black belt in taekwondo. Putin never actually practiced taekwondo, but the former KGB officer was a black belt judo champion in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg.
Figure skating is a great source of pride for Putin and Russian sports fans. But they won’t get to see teenagers Kamila Valieva, who had a positive drug test before the Beijing Games, gold medalist Anna Shcherbakova, and sore loser Alexandra Trusova on the ice at the upcoming world championships starting March 21, in Montpellier, France.
The International Skating Union (ISU) banned skaters from Russia from all international skating competitions. A statement read: “The ISU Council reiterates its solidarity with all those affected by the conflict in Ukraine and our thoughts are with the entire Ukrainian people and country.”
Russia has also been barred from competing in international skiing, basketball, track and field, and some tennis events, including defending its titles in the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup. Russia won’t be competing in the World Athletics Championships scheduled for July in Eugene, Oregon.
The Associated Press published a glance on March 1, at the reaction of sports to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, from archery to weightlifting. It is already outdated because it was published before the Paralympics ban. The glance also lists the international sports events scheduled to take place in Russia which have been canceled or shifted to other locations.
RUSSIA GETS BOOTED FROM WORLD CUP
But the biggest blow of all came when FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, suspended Russia and its club teams from all competitions. Russia was ejected from qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, scheduled to begin in November in Qatar.
UEFA, the governing body of European football, issued a similar ban. As a result, the May 28 Champions League final, Europe’s showcase soccer event, was moved from St. Petersburg, in a stadium built by energy giant Gazprom, to a Paris suburb. UEFA also ended a sponsorship agreement reportedly worth $50 million a year with Gazprom, The New York Times reported.
The two football organizations issued a joint statement late Monday: “Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine. Both presidents [Gianni Infantino and Aleksander Ceferin] hope that the situation in Ukraine will improve significantly and rapidly so that football can again be a vector for unity and peace amongst people.”
It was the athletes and soccer officials themselves who really forced FIFA’s hand.
Poland took the kickoff last Saturday when the president of Poland’s Football Association, Cezary Kulesza, and the team’s players—including their star forward, Robert Lewandowski of FC Bayern Munich—said there was no way they would play their March 24 European qualifying semi-final match against Russia in Moscow.
“No more words, time to act!” Kulesza wrote on Twitter. “Due to the escalation of the aggression of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine the Polish national team does not intend to play the playoff match against Russia. This is the only right decision.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda supported Kulesza’s decision by tweeting: “You do not play with bandits!”
The football associations in Sweden and the Czech Republic, the other teams in the qualifying group, took the pass from Poland and declared that their teams also would not play Russia under any circumstances.
Last Sunday, FIFA tried to avoid an all-out ban of Russia by proposing penalties that would force Russia to play under a different name and in a neutral venue without its national anthem or flag, The New York Times reported. But the Poles, Swedes, and Czechs held firm, and even more teams announced that they would not play Russia if it was allowed to remain in the World Cup. Kulesza tweeted:
FIFPRO, the union that represents 65,000 soccer players worldwide, also demanded that FIFA throw Russia out of the World Cup and other global soccer events.
“Russia’s aggression and the united response of democracies around the world have shown that the defence of human dignity and the rule of law are being tested. Football, and sport, has its own responsibility to respond in turn. Its past policies of political neutrality have failed the test of time, and today must mark a turning point for how sport engages with society, how it stands for democracy and human rights. A new approach, consistently applied, that rests on sport’s proclaimed values is urgently needed,” FIFPRO said in a statement.
Ukraine’s team, which is set to play Scotland in its own World Cup playoff in March, will remain in the competition.
A day later, shortly after the IOC had urged international sports federations to exclude Russia, FIFA changed course and banned Russia.