IOC boss says individual athletes cannot be punished for acts of their governments, defending move to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutrals
IOC boss says individual athletes cannot be punished for acts of their governments, defending move to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete as neutrals
Thomas Bach says Ukraine is "one war among 28 wars and conflicts going on this world".
He is wrong though. And this a-political stance is the opposite of why the Olympics was started. Fight in sports not on the battlefield!
Wait, are you saying he's wrong and that individuals should be punished for acts of their government?
Well, you can really zoom in on the individual, and decide. But if the person is in the military, or completely on the Russian government's dime, they are spokespeople for that government. That government is not welcome, by extension the athlestes are not welcome. The olympics should not be a platform for idols of the russian federation to gain a platform.
exactly, these countries take pride when winning, no more pride for them,ç
The Russians have been cheating for how long anyway!? I'd never trust a win from them. Olympics is shite now
I wonder why USian athletes are still allowed to compete under their nation's flag, seeing as their government will invade or meddle with whoever it damn well likes.
Because we’re useful as Allies.
Allies the way that the mob protection racket is allied with local business owners.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Last week, the IOC said individual athletes from Russia and and its ally Belarus who had qualified for the Paris summer games would be allowed to compete without flags, emblems or anthems of their countries.
Mr Bach was speaking exclusively to the BBC at the UN Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on Wednesday.
Olympic sports federations had asked the IOC to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete but with no affiliation to their nations.
This was despite a number of countries - including the US and UK - calling for an all-out ban amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Ukraine itself suggested it might boycott the games, with President Volodomyr Zelensky saying Russian athletes "cannot be covered up with some pretended neutrality."
Mr Bach dismissed the threats of a boycott, saying countries that disagree "are allowed to have different political opinions".
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He's right, blaming the innocent civilians for something a dictator does is morally and ethically wrong. Germany had to go through all of this before. Other countries guilty of genocide are allowed in the Olympics like China, which is one of the worst offenders and cheats every single time, so why are they allowed?
I agree with this in principle, but the way they were allowed to compete as the "Russian Olympic Committee" was bullshit. You can't have a team called "totally not Russia (wink)" and expect that to be a meaningful punishment for the nations leaders
I think the athletes should only be able to compete as citizens of the world with no reference or acknowledgement of the banned country allowed.
That will never work as long as they're the only country in that situation. They would need to be mixed with athletes from other unrelated countries for this to make sense.
The point isn’t to disguise them. The point is to call attention to their country’s misdeeds by refusing them the honor of flying their colors. Perhaps the individual athletes should still win medals, but the IOC wouldn’t assign the credit to Russia, who would not be eligible for them.