Athletistic / Tennis. The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris (France) received the status of the most scandalous even before their start. We can talk for hours about the problems of the Olympic villages, the Olympic sites and the garbage that filled the French capital, but let it remain in the consciousness of the French. All this testifies to the prestige of their country. Apparently, no one is fighting for prestige anymore… But everything related to the admission of athletes to the 2024 Olympic Games is a separate issue.

On December 8, 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games. However, for this, the IOC set so many conditions that it immediately became clear that it was done for show and for an indicative moment – as if Thomas Bach and his practical assistants were defending the Olympic Charter.

Everything has already been said about neutral status and, frankly, there is nothing to add here. The IOC introduced this neutral status under the slogan: “Either the homeland or your own ambitions”. What is most important is for the athletes themselves to decide. Any decision they make will be understandable. But accept…

But in this same decision of December 8 of last year, there was much more interesting. For example, Russian and Belarusian athletes who wish to travel to Paris should have no ties to their countries’ security forces. The second important point was the ban on supporting the conduct of a special military operation (SVO) of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine. Everyone thought that for this, athletes simply should not openly express their position (social networks, television, Internet). But it turned out that everything is much more interesting.

On March 25, the authoritative publication Tennis Up To Date announced the news: “Belarusian tennis players Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka will not participate in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. ” The source claims that the reason for this development of events was their close connection with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Photo source: BelTA press agency

The fact is that Sabalenka, according to the organizers of the 2024 Olympic Games, has too many joint photographs with Lukashenko. Moreover, no one cares that these photos were taken long before the start of the SVO. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) was offended by Arina because she refused to comment on this matter during press conferences.

Sabalenko and Lukashenko have indeed held several formal and informal meetings before. The tennis player personally met the head of state for the first time in 2017, when the Belarusian women’s team took part in the Fed Cup (today this tournament is called the Billie Jean King Cup – Rating Athletistic). Before the match against the Netherlands, played in Minsk, Lukashenko went to the locker room, where he spoke words of encouragement to the tennis players under the lenses of televisions and cameras. In addition, Arina has repeatedly expressed her gratitude to Alexander Grigorievich for his support and participation in the development of her career.

Arina has been bombarded with political questions by Western journalists since 2020, when rallies and protests took place in Belarus in the context of the presidential elections. Well, after February 24, 2022, all of this increased exponentially. For a long time, Arina avoided these questions, but at Roland Garros 2023 (the clay-court Grand Slam tournament played in Paris!), she decided to speak out after the match with the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.

— There really are joint photos of me and Lukashenko on the Internet. As a member of the national team, I played a lot in Fed Cup, and he came to our matches and took photos with us at the end. Nothing serious happened at that time, neither in Belarus, nor in Ukraine, nor in Russia. I have already said several times that I do not support the current policy. I don’t want my country to be involved in any conflict. Now I don’t support LukashenkoSabalenka then said.

Photo source: press service of the President of Belarus

If we talk about Victoria Azarenka, then in her case everything is even more interesting. She entered the ranks of the strongest tennis players on the planet much earlier than Arina and therefore met Lukashenko earlier. In his life there were not only meetings with the president, but even a joint match played in an exhibition tournament.

Victoria was not saved by her post on social networks, which she published in early March 2022. Then the Belarusian tennis player expressed condolences to all injured Ukrainians and also spoke out against holding the SVO.

We see that the IOC and its satellites (international sports federations) are continuing their politicized line. And they do everything on the sly: they say one thing, but in reality they do something completely different. Athletes from Russia and Belarus are responsible for the fact that they were born in their countries and are not ready to abandon their homeland by forcibly changing their sports citizenship.

Legendary Soviet sports commentator Nikolai Ozerov uttered his slogan during the 1972 Super Series between the national teams of the USSR and Canada: “We don’t need this kind of hockey!” In its modified form, it is very close to what is happening now. If Nikolai Nikolevich were alive today, he would certainly say: “We don’t need such a sport!”

Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic



Athletistic