What is the real problem with Russia’s withdrawal from international competitions. Chronicle of Veronika Stepanova

Thus, late in the evening of Saturday October 22, the Council of the International Ski Federation FIS took a decision: to extend the suspension of Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions. For an undetermined time.

Reason: “For reasons of maintaining the integrity of the FIS competition and the safety of all participants, and in accordance with the recommendations of the IOC.”

It appears that the FIS is the last major international sports federation to collapse under pressure from those who want us Russians to ‘cancel’. It is desirable (for them) forever and in everything – but for now, at least in sports.

Let me remind you that this is my column and reflects my personal views and feelings, not “statements on behalf of a group of comrades”. The comrades will speak for themselves.

I’m going to be very dishonest if I say I don’t care about the decision of the FIS.

Not from a sporting point of view. I do not hesitate to say that my objective is the 2026 Olympics. My coaches, the specialists who help them, say very clearly: we are not in a hurry, we are not forcing, we are working according to a long-term plan. The strongest skiers in the world, the ones I have to admire, from whom I have to learn, are in Russia. So in terms of sport, hardly anything changes for me, at least for the next two years.

Prize money at international competitions? Listen, once unsuccessfully joked about it, I admit. Many took it literally. To avoid misunderstandings: what I won for my performances in the World Cup last season (and the numbers are in the public domain, see who is interested), I hope to win in domestic competitions. We now have sponsors, as you know. I don’t think next season I will come close to Natalia Nepryaeva’s level at the World Cup, that also applies to prize money.

On the other hand, I always talk and think about sport as a show. There are many more potential opportunities to gain an audience, new fans, if you play at home: in Krasnogorsk, Syktyvkar and Tyumen. Compared to an isolated Finnish or French village where the ski world cups take place. Although, I note it again, the broadcasting of the races on the federal channel is very important. I hope will still show key races in Russia.

Trips ? You have to train in Finnish or Italian forests to run in the same places later and show good results. It is impossible, alas, to arrive from Siberia at the last moment and win in Davos. By the way, Beijing, where we were all for the first time, showed who is who when everyone is on an equal footing.

I have a very conscious approach: I will continue to train in places that my trainer considers optimal in terms of results, anywhere in the world. But psychologically, training on Laura in Sochi is much more pleasant than on the polar Muonio.

So I’m not very worried about missing World Cup stages (skip possible – these stages should still be selected)

So what’s my problem with being suspended? In injustice and in the misunderstanding of the rules of life.

I think it is already clear to everyone that a small group of high profile radicals are fighting for the withdrawal of Russian athletes. The bosses of the federations, the International Olympic Committee itself and the “silent majority” have decided to comply. Many of them are well aware that this is gross and unwarranted hypocrisy. The special military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen… remember who carried them out? In the same Norway, many people know very well that their planes in no way bombed Tripoli with teddy bears and sweets 11 years ago. But they pretend not to know, they don’t remember.

But even more than all the “participants in the process” of the world of ski racing, something else worries. Our expulsion opened such a “gateway to the unknown” – it turns out that athletes can be expelled for political reasons. Just to represent a country that someone doesn’t like, and that someone was at the helm. That in itself is strange, false, frightening. Here you, a European sports company, invest +100,500 euros in a company in Russia, build a promotion and development strategy – and you have a thunderbolt, cut all key market ambassadors, turn off television for millions of people. Will you continue to invest in such a strange sector? Or switch to tennis rackets or hockey sticks, without any policy? Are you going to invest in China? You know, there are a lot of people in the West who want to remove Chinese sports “for politics”.

Further away. Did you pay attention to the motivation for the suspension? “For reasons of maintaining the integrity of the competition.” How to understand it? For example, in all European countries, including Russia (except Belarus), the death penalty is not applied. And in the United States – it is applied. Just in those states where America’s best skiers come from. Most, if not all, Western Europeans regard the death penalty as absolute barbarism. Well, then let’s exclude Americans from FIS competitions on the grounds that they are from a “barbaric state”. Or, at the very least, we will make sure that American skiers are asked about it, in the spirit of “surrender and repent”. What about the question of authorizing/prohibiting same-sex marriages? Number of genres? Does the state not respect Western European standards? Eliminate their athletes immediately! To “preserve integrity”! The logic of the withdrawal of Russian athletes dictates precisely such steps, doesn’t it?

I’m sure you understand that this hasn’t occurred to me now – we have been discussing this for many months in correspondence with other skiers, coaches, specialists around the world… Our communication has not not been interrupted and will not be interrupted, I think. The ski community exists and a lot of people don’t like the way we are treated.

I think the only reasonable step is to stop pointing out our differences all the time and start exercising. Without preconditions.