On October 19, 2023, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed a decree organizing the World Friendship Games. The event is expected to be the first multi-sport competition, which will include performances in 25 summer sports (Olympic and non-Olympic). These Games will have to become a kind of replacement of athletes from Russia and Belarus at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris (France), where, due to IOC sanctions that violate the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter, 90 to 95 % of eligible athletes will likely not be included. But an important part of these competitions will be the breaking of the iron curtain that hangs over Russia after a series of sanctions: they were first initiated by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and concerned the problem of obtaining information from the LIMS database of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, then the IOC’s call to international federations to actually sever all normal relations with Russian sport.
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War means war. Russia receives another hard blow from the IOC
The fact is that after the start of SVO in Ukraine, major international sports competitions practically ceased to be held on Russian territory, which, under the ban, left Russian athletes to compete exclusively in domestic competitions Russians, sometimes diluting this with the possibility of competing with their unfortunate colleagues from Belarus. But participants from more than 80 countries were supposed to come to the World Friendship Games. It is clear that the representatives of the West would have ignored these Games, but the athletes from the countries of the South (Asia, Africa, South America) were going to try themselves in new competitions.
But first, on November 14, 2023, it became known that the IOC had sent a letter to all National Olympic Committees (NOCs), in which it warned them against participating in the World Friendship Games, because it contradicts the decision of the IOC executive committee. of February 25, 2022, in which it was specified that it was impossible to organize competitions on Russian territory. And on November 17, WADA decided to add its two cents.
— RUSADA still does not comply with the WADA code. In this regard, I would like to highlight an important point regarding the World Friendship Games, which will take place in Russia in 2024. This event will be organized in a country that has been decertified by its anti-doping agency. WADA does not have any information on the anti-doping program at the Friendship Games, which worries us greatly. The possible participation of the signatories in this event could lead to other unforeseeable consequences.WADA head Witold Banka said at a press conference.
Simply put, the IOC put pressure on skeptical countries and WADA, which is the right arm of the International Olympic Committee, directly began to blackmail individual athletes who could easily come to the World Friendship Games not as an organized team, but on personal request. or an invitation.
“All these structures, led by the IOC, can only threaten and apply sanctions against Russian and Belarusian athletes. They won’t be able to do more stupid things than they have already done. They won’t bring us back until the end of the SVO. And at the end of the SVO, everything will be reset, everything will return to normal. You must take these statements calmly and do your job. This means that we are on the right track, we are doing everything correctly, because they are so worried and nervous. For some time now they have ceased to be our friends and our enemies must be treated accordingly.said Dmitry Vasiliev, two-time Olympic biathlon champion, in an interview with Sport Express.
This development of events profoundly changes the rules of the game. It is already clear that the IOC is afraid for its monopoly on world sport and will try with all its might to extinguish the possibility of organizing a major sporting event that does not suit it , using all methods, even the lowest and prohibited ones. However, what is hoped is that recent years will have prepared the representatives of Russia for these kinds of problems and that the organizers of the World Friendship Games will be able to cope with all new problems and that in September 2024, excellent competitions will be organized. which was held in Moscow and Yekaterinburg, to which representatives from a dozen countries will come.
Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic
Source: Sport
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
