It was a backward roll when the International Paralympic Committee changed its mind within 24 hours and banned teams from Russia and Belarus from the Paralympics in Beijing. The pressure from boycott threats from Paralympic athletes had become too great. ARD doping expert Hajo Seppelt, who uncovered the Russian state doping scandal, sees this as a turning point:
“I also notice that, like many athletes’ representatives worldwide – not those who are under the umbrella, so to speak, under the umbrella of the IOC, but who are independent, that they speak up and say that it can’t go on like this,” so Seppelt in the Deutschlandfunk sports talk.
“If sport continues to be governed in this way, the day will come when sports associations as we know them will no longer be able to survive in these structures.”
Athletes in conflict
Wheelchair basketball player Mareike Miller has been an athletes’ spokeswoman for responsible athletes for years. At the same time, however, she also sees a conflict between collective punishment and individual complicity:
“Basically, of course, there is a dichotomy that ultimately athletes are being punished for something over which they have no direct influence. Ultimately, however, one has to say that one cannot completely distance oneself from it.”
State doping was not enough to exclude Russia
After the IOC recommendation a few days ago, many sports associations worldwide excluded Russia and Belarus within a few hours or days. Doping expert Hajo Seppelt finds it remarkable. A few years ago, during the state doping scandal, that wasn’t possible:
“It was always said that the young Russian athletes couldn’t be held responsible for what happened there in the sport from backers and other masterminds. And now suddenly there is a recommendation that Russian athletes and Belarusian athletes should no longer participate.”
This is a sign of sport, explains former DOSB official Michael Vesper, which is set like sanctions from other areas:
“Right now the whole world is against Russia and against this war of aggression. And in such a situation, sport cannot and does not want to stand aside. In such a situation, sport must also show a clear edge.”
But that’s exactly why it’s not a real plot, Seppelt replies:
“It’s not very difficult for the IOC to join the chorus of everyone in the world in this situation, where I think it’s a bit cheap to say that we condemn it. But in situations where the world may not be looking too closely, but the IOC knows full well. The fact that there has been silence over the years is the real scandal for me.”
Vespers: “IOC no world government”
Seppelt condemns the IOC’s silence on, for example, human rights violations in China. The IOC shares responsibility if it does not use its opportunities by awarding the games. But the IOC can’t save the whole world, Vesper counters:
“The IOC is not and cannot be and does not claim to be: a world government. The IOC can certainly influence political things. But of course he can’t get involved in the usual conflicts in the world.”
There are certainly changes within the host countries during the preparation for the Olympic Games. But that’s not enough. Athlete spokeswoman Mareike Miller wishes for changes in the self-image and in the structures of the IOC itself on Deutschlandfunk:
“The very first thing would be to at least recognize this social responsibility and to compare yourself somewhere with the values of integrity and the corresponding responsibility of an international company. To introduce certain minimum standards in terms of human rights for sponsors, for example, and gradually also when awarding events. And not everything silently, to put up with.”