Russian government becoming more aggressive towards Olympic movement, Thomas Bach says
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International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has said that the Russian government's aggressiveness is "growing by the day".
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PARIS – The Russian government is becoming increasingly aggressive towards the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the Paris Games draw near, IOC president Thomas Bach said on March 19.
Russia’s sports minister Oleg Matytsin said last week Russia should not boycott the July 26-Aug 11 Games, despite restrictions on its athletes imposed by the IOC over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The IOC will allow Russian and Belarusian athletes who qualify to take part as neutrals without their countries’ flags, emblems or national anthems.
“As far as their participation is concerned, we have heard the rather polite signal (from the Russian sports minister) but on the other hand, we’ve also seen the government’s very aggressive comments,” Bach told French daily Le Monde.
He said their presence at the opening and closing ceremonies would be debated at the March 19-20 IOC executive board meeting.
“The IOC doesn’t comment, but we can see that the government’s aggressiveness is growing by the day, against the IOC, against the Games, against me,” Bach added.
“They range from ‘fascist’ to ‘destroyer of the Games and the Olympic movement’. And it all comes from Russian officials. I don’t know if it’s coming from Vladimir Putin himself... but the attacks are coming from all levels.”
The IOC also said that Russia’s plan to hold the Friendship Games is a political action that violates the Olympic Charter, and countries should not take part in them.
Russia said in 2023 it planned to relaunch the multi-sport Friendship Games in 2024, 40 years after its first edition.
It plans to hold the first summer edition of the Games in September – which in a way compete with the Olympics – with the winter edition planned for 2026 in Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“The Russian government intends to organise purely politically motivated sports events in Russia,” the IOC, which clearly opposes using athletes for political propaganda, said in a statement.
“For this purpose, the Russian government has launched a very intensive diplomatic offensive by having government delegations and ambassadors, as well as ministerial and other governmental authorities, approaching governments around the world.”
The IOC is not criticising the Russians for creating multi-sport competitions outside its aegis since several already exist, including the Commonwealth Games, but for doing so through direct contacts with governments.
It added: “To make their purely political motivation even more obvious, they are deliberately circumventing the sports organisations in their target countries. It is a cynical attempt by the Russian Federation to politicise sport.”
The IOC also said it “strongly urges all stakeholders of the Olympic Movement and all governments to reject any participation” in the Friendship Games.
In other news, Laurent Michaud, director of the Athletes’ Village, told Sky News the Paris Olympics will provide 300,000 condoms for the 14,250 athletes present.
The distribution of condoms is an Olympic tradition – since the 1988 Games in Seoul, organisers have handed them out to spread awareness of HIV and AIDS.
There were still 150,000 condoms provided during the pandemic-hit Tokyo Olympics in 2021, even though there were rules limiting athletes’ physical interaction with one another due to Covid-19. REUTERS, AFP
