Russians – about the possible admission of Russian athletes under a neutral flag: We do not need such a sport

Athletistic/ Others. In 2022, the geopolitical situation has seriously changed. In that regard, things started to happen that were quite hard to imagine. Sanctions against Russia began to affect not only the political and economic spheres. They have also made their way into the sport. In February and March 2022, in most sports, Russian athletes were suspended from participating in international competitions. The IOC has recommended federations of various sports to make a decision on the withdrawal of the Russians. Most federations have followed this recommendation.

In general, many are already used to international competitions without the Russians. National figure skating did the best. After all, Russian single skaters are the best in the world, and in other disciplines Russians are one of the favorites. Therefore, the stages of the Russian Grand Prix, the Russian Championship, the show jumping tournament and the First Channel Cup turned out to be incredibly interesting and exciting.

Club football has changed slightly externally. Russian teams do not participate in European competitions, but in recent years the results have not been the best, so, as before, the main attention is on the RPL and the country’s Cup. Many legionnaires left clubs in Russia, having received the right to unilaterally suspend the contract. However, in general, foreign players have not completely disappeared from our league. But the Russian team seems unimportant. Valery Karpin’s wards have spent only three friendlies in a year. They beat Kyrgyzstan 2-1 and earned two goalless draws with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

In hockey, the situation is similar. The KHL continues to be the second largest league in the world, although it has lost the Finnish and Latvian teams. The matches are quite spectacular, it is interesting to watch them. But the Russian team can only play with Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian youth team. At the First Channel Cup, the wards of Aleksey Zhamnov failed to beat the Belarusians.

Biathletes take part in the stages of the Russian Cup, and also face Belarusians at the stages of the Commonwealth Cup. Skiers also have the Russian Cup. The level of these competitions seems quite high. However, if we are talking about cross-country skiing, there were problems related to the lack of quality programming. Russian skiers are also among the best in the world, so it would be interesting to learn from the experience of organizing competitions of figure skating colleagues.

Nevertheless, 2023 began with active discussions about the possible admission of Russians to international competitions. The IOC proposes to admit athletes to the tournaments who did not actively support the political course that Russia took in February 2022. There is talk of their admission under a neutral flag.

This decision has many opponents. First, Ukraine announced its intention to boycott the Olympics if the Russians were admitted. Poland and Great Britain also create a coalition. Inside Russia too, all is not so simple. ROC leader Stanislav Pozdnyakov is quite positive about the IOC’s moves. However, some believe that agreeing to operate under a neutral flag is simply unacceptable.

However, not only officials but also ordinary people have opinions on this subject. We propose to study what Russians think about the possible admission of athletes to international competitions in a neutral status. They left their comments in the group Match TV on Vkontakte.

Grigory Novik:

“Sport is out of politics,” they said.

Sergei Romankov:

– The Russian national team should play with the flag and the anthem!!! In individual international competitions, athletes can decide for themselves in which status they will compete.

Alexander Safonov:

– The question is so complex and ambiguous that there is no solution at the moment. Sports-averse people have no idea how much money, time, and health it takes to train a decent level athlete! For athletes, participation in the Olympic Games is the goal of their entire sporting career. If this is not the case, then all the time spent loses all its meaning… Do not forget that sportsmen, apart from sports, know practically nothing else. So let’s close all schools of higher sportsmanship and limit ourselves to physical education classes. State policy in this area is very important. Everything is very ambiguous…

Yuri Urubkov:

– Without a flag and without an anthem, RUSSIA will say no!

Nadia Ayupova:

– We don’t need such a sport where our athletes will be forced to sign papers and be against their country and condemn the special operation. We must create an alternative to all international competitions and participate only in Asian competitions and only with friendly countries.

Anna Privalova:

– The absence of Russian athletes is the absence of an interesting fight, entertainment and, most importantly, a lack of money in the budget of the country hosting the games. Let’s not go.

Anna Anyuta:

I hope you are smart enough not to agree to their terms. They don’t want Russia to participate, like everyone else, with an anthem and a flag, so it’s better to keep it that way. But if someone really wants it, let him participate alone, without a country, with a white flag. They – the CIO and everyone else, that’s all they need, to humiliate even more.

Sergey Interist:

– Without a flag and at the same time it is necessary to condemn Russia, in other words, traitors to Russia will be invited. The athlete therefore has a difficult choice, career or homeland.

Yaroslav Fifth, Athletistic