It was supposed to be a celebration of sport in an iconic arena: an amphitheater in Verona built 2,000 years ago, the scene of gladiator fights. But the world’s focus during the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Winter Games, this Friday (6), was different. The exile of Russian athletes has come to an end.
Ukraine refused to see the smiling faces of its rivals and boycotted the athletes’ parade, along with six other countries. For the first time since Sochi-2014, they will be able to compete in the Paralympics under their own flag. If they win gold, they will hear their anthem. It’s a preview of what’s to come. It’s not a surprise, it’s a trend.
Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus were banned from most sporting competitions. At the Olympics, a partial suspension was created – a smaller group competing as neutral, without a flag or anthem. The war has entered its fifth year and there is a movement to pave the way for their return.
The president of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) recently said that athletes cannot be affected by the actions of their governments. Russia will not be at the World Cup and, for the FIFA president, the sports ban did not achieve anything. Since last year, the International Judo Federation has allowed Russians to compete under its flag.
The IPC (International Paralympic Committee) lifted the suspension last year, but international federations maintained it. Russia appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the International Ski Federation and won. Six Russian athletes and four from Belarus are at the Games in Italy.
The IPC had banned both countries for using sport as war propaganda, which would have diminished. This will return, as there is no soft power more efficient for authoritarian regimes than the success of their athletes.
Sport does not live in a bubble nor can it be oblivious to what is happening in the world. At the same time, sports organizations face a problem that seems impossible to solve.
The world is complex. Wars break out from one moment to the next and there is no single mechanism for deciding appropriate sanctions for each of them.
One of them, the Olympic truce, is demoralized. The tradition comes from Ancient Greece, when wars were suspended during the Games so that athletes and spectators could come and go safely. The concept was taken up by the IOC and UN in the 1990s and broken several times. Russia invaded Ukraine on the eve of the 2022 Paralympics. The United States, Israel, Iran and neighboring countries remain in conflict. Will they be punished sportingly? No way. The athlete who would represent Iran in Milan-Cortina withdrew at the last minute for safety reasons. Israel has a competitor; the United States, 68.
At the same time, if all athletes from nations involved in conflict are banned, it will be the end of sporting events. It’s not fair to choose one war over another. A life lost in a conflict is not worth more or less.
Navigating geopolitical issues is the biggest challenge for sports organizations today. They will be criticized whatever decision is made. Perhaps, therefore, they are following the safest strategy, even if it is not always the fairest: to stay away from politics as much as possible.
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