FIS does not know the reasons
Svetlana Adriyuk also trained with the Dolidovichs and their coach Vjacheslav Zajcev in Russia. Zajcev was fired from the ski association “because of the unexcused absence”. But the background could be that Zajcev, like Sergey Dolidovitch, was no longer part of the loyal squad. He too had not voted for President Lukashenko in the last, apparently manipulated, elections. For Dolidovich and the Belarusian sportscommunity Abroad, the suspension of the athletes and Zajevc’s dismissal clearly have political reasons.
The International Ski Association wants to know whether this is really the case FIS not judge yet. Although it is known that Daria Dolidovich and Svetlana Andiyuk have been banned from competitions, the Belarusian association has not yet answered the question about the reasons for this, she says FIS at the request of the sports show.
Skiing is no exception
The fact that the Belarusian Ski Association sorted out so shortly before the Olympic Games comes as no surprise to Anatolij Kotov: Only loyal and tried and tested athletes and coaches are allowed to travel to Beijing, explains the political analyst and former Belarusian sports official, who after the suppression of the mass protests against the re-election Lukashenko had to flee to Warsaw. There Kotov now works, among other things, for the organization SOS.by, which supports athletes who have remained without financial support and training opportunities because of their political views. The recently elected President of the Belarusian Ski Association, Alexander Dorohovic – who has little to do with sport and is also a high-ranking official in the Minsk administration – wants to make a name for himself and is trying to get rid of all those who are even remotely critical of the regime and thus for the rest of the To set an example for the team, says Kotov.
And skiing is no exception for Kotov. The case is an example of Lukashenko’s current politics: the dictator, who is hated by the majority of the population, is trying to prevent new protests and to establish a regime of fear that reminds many people in Belarus of the Soviet Union of the Stalin era. Purges are being carried out in all authorities and companies and after all opposition figures and activists have been fired, bullied out of the country or put in prison, it is now the turn of pro-Western, doubting or even neutral citizens who simply do not fit into the loyalty grid. “Soon they will run out of people who can work”, says Anatoly Kotov.
Penal camp for critical sports journalists
As in the 1930s, neighbors and colleagues are now being denounced and show trials conducted. One of them came to an end on Wednesday (01/19/21): Alexander Ivulin, probably the best-known sports journalist in the country, was sentenced to two years in a prison camp. In the days after the 2020 presidential election, Ivulin also gave interviews to the sports show about the protests and human rights violations against athletes. In his successful YouTube format “Chestnok” he interviewed athletes who campaigned for free elections and against the dictatorship and campaigned for fair sports in Belarus. That’s why he’s in sportscommunity popular. For many, the verdict against Ivulin is almost a reason to celebrate. Compared to other critics of the regime, such as the politician Maria Kolesnikova, who received eleven to 15 years in prison, his sentence seems almost mild.
For Anatolij Kotov, the fact that two young female skiers were excluded from all competitions and training camps shortly before the Olympics fits this pattern perfectly. Shortly before the Olympics, the sports officials wanted to carry out a thorough cleaning to “total loyalty” to ensure the Olympic delegation and rule out that anyone in Beijing “the Timanovskaya makes”, according to Kotov. Belarusian sprinter Svetlana Timanovskaja complained about decisions made by those responsible in the athletics association at the Tokyo 2021 summer games, after which she was to be flown back to Belarus, but was able to flee to Poland.
The case made international headlines that were extremely uncomfortable for Lukashenko. The dictator and the sports officials now want to avoid a repeat by all means. “But what they don’t understand is that it’s not about politics at all, just like Timanovskaya wasn’t about politics at all, but about treating people decently.”, says Anatoly Kotov. “In this sense, the 2020 revolution was above all a revolution of dignity, in which people demanded respect and protested not so much against Lukashenko as against humiliation, paternalism and lies – for their voices to be finally heard.”
As long as this is not understood and as long as the sports system in Belarus is controlled by party officials, the athletes are trained by officials and loyalty to the regime decides who takes part in competitions, there can be no question of fair sport in Belarus, says Kotov.
Status: 01/20/2022, 12:27