I never thought this would happen: me defending Russia on any issue relating to sport.
Before I get cancelled, let’s get to the context.
Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, most of the sporting world banned the country and Belarus — its ally in the war — from sporting competitions.
FIFA and UEFA banned football teams from both countries from participating in their tournaments; the International Olympic Committee (IOC), of the Olympic Games; International federations followed suit. And so on.
The suspension is already lighter in some sports and in the Olympics, which allow these athletes to compete as neutrals, that is, they cannot display their country’s flag or listen to the anthem when winning a gold medal. This is the case with tennis: the number one in the world, Aryna Sabalenka, for example, is from Belarus and continues on the courts.
Now, there is a peace plan and a ceasefire being negotiated. As soon as the war ends, you can bet: everyone will have to stir this hornet’s nest. And there is a great possibility that Russia and Belarus will return for good.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has already said that, with the end of the conflict, the players will be readmitted to European competitions, implying that FIFA will do the same. Upon taking office, the new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, said that she would not ban countries from the Olympic Games because of wars, leaving the door half open.
Even in athletics, one of the strictest sports towards Russia, the president of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, said that Russians and Belarusians continue to take anti-doping tests “in anticipation of eventual peace.”
This week, the International Judo Federation once again allowed Russian athletes to compete under its flag. In September, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) reinstated the two national committees, amid protest from more than 30 countries.
The president of the IPC, Brazilian Andrew Parsons, claimed that there is less and less evidence that sport is being used to promote war. Russia and Belarus will not be at the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics in March because there is no time to compete in qualifying events or because international federations have maintained the ban.
But the main point of this entire discussion lies in another statement by Parsons: why only Russia and Belarus? There are many conflicts around the world and no one has been suspended anymore.
I would advocate Russia being banned for life for the heinous state doping scheme that began in 2010 and was shown in part in the documentary “Icarus.” I also think that the sportswashing of Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian regimes, which use the achievements of their athletes to try to clean up the image of their countries, is rotten. Sports managers cannot remain inactive in the face of the sad images of 800 sports facilities destroyed in Ukraine by the Russians or the deaths of athletes in the conflict.
However, if the only criteria for a ban is a war, and if it ends, the suspension must also end. Either everyone is punished or none. In some ways, there is already a selective ethic in practice.
If we want to be fair to everyone, we cannot choose just one to pay the price — even if that is Russia.
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