It is still not clear whether and to what extent Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games. Russia’s wartime president Vladimir Putin now used the stage to complain about the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympics.
The president, who has ordered a war of aggression against an independent neighboring country that violates international law, sees the Olympic idea and ideals in danger. Why? Well, because Russian athletes may be banned from the Olympics because of the war.
Putin is upset that the Olympic movement has fallen into a “trap of financial interests” over the past ten years. The IOC is distorting the ideas of the Olympic mastermind Pierre de Coubertin, Putin swore at the “Eastern Economic Forum” EEF in Vladivostok. According to Reuters, Putin said the Olympic movement was “degrading” and Russia would defend the interests of its athletes.
Politics should stand beyond politics and “unite” people instead of “dividing” them, the Russian president said on Tuesday. At this point he failed to mention that Putin himself likes to mix sport and politics and that many athletes are employed by the army.
“I believe that the current management of international (sports) federations and the International Olympic Committee distorts the original idea of Pierre de Coubertin,” Putin said at a plenary session of the economic forum, according to the Russian and Kremlin-affiliated agency Tass. Putin went on to complain about “unacceptable commercialization of global sports and the International Olympic Movement.”
Putin’s criticism of commercialization is with all due respect – the fact that Russian athletes continue to be threatened with exclusion is primarily due to his warlike actions.
IOC recommendation for return under certain conditions
The International Olympic Committee recently recommended that the professional associations allow individual starters from Russia and Belarus to resume under certain conditions.
This includes, for example, that they start under a neutral flag. Some associations implement this, others do not. It has not yet been decided whether the athletes will start at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. IOC boss Thomas Bach did not set a deadline.