The International Olympic Committee is clearing the way for Russian athletes to compete at the Olympic Games despite that country’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine and the continuing brutality of its war against its neighbor.
But why stop there? Why not give the Russian team the place of honor usually reserved for the host country during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Games in Paris? Give them quota spots in every sport so they won’t feel snubbed or left out?
Better yet, why not allow Russian president Vladimir Putin to light the torch in Paris! Surely that would foster the kind of goodwill and international harmony that would get IOC president Thomas Bach the Nobel Peace Prize he so desperately craves.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that Russia has complete control over the IOC and its leadership,” Global Athlete said in a statement Wednesday, after the IOC announced it was pursuing ways to appease Putin and Russia.
“The IOC is allowing the Games to be used for sportwashing – to normalize, legitimize and distract from the war,” Global Athlete said. “As a servant of Russia, the IOC continues to be on the wrong side of history with this decision that favors politics over principle and war over peace.”
Ouch. But … not wrong.
Under Bach, the IOC has shown a shameless moral flexibility when it comes to Russia. Putin and Russia have undercut the ideals of the Olympic movement with a state-sponsored doping program, made a mockery of the “sanctions” that followed and violated the Olympic charter with the invasion of Ukraine last February, only to have Bach and the IOC forgive them at every turn.
What makes the IOC’s latest display of spinelessness particularly galling is that it comes two days after Ukraine announced the death of Dmytro Sharpar, a figure skater who competed in pairs at the Youth Olympics in 2016. Sharpar, who was killed in combat near Bakhmut, in the Donbas region, is the first athlete with ties to the Olympic movement to die in the war, according to the Olympedia database.
It also comes one day after Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed the issue of Russian athletes competing in Paris with French president Emmanuel Macron.
“I stressed that athletes from (Russia) should have no place at Paris 2024,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.
The IOC plowed blithely ahead, however, giving Ukraine the equivalent of a middle finger with its self-serving statement about its “unifying mission” and not wanting athletes to be discriminated against because of their passports. Never mind that the IOC has had no problem weighing in on international matters before, including banning South African athletes between 1964 and 1988 because of that country’s system of apartheid.
This was a chance for the IOC to be the force for good it styles itself to be, and instead it cozied up even closer to Russia. By allowing its athletes to compete, the IOC is letting Russia know it can violate every accepted norm and there won’t be any consequences.
“We recognize that athletes are not the powerbrokers who are responsible for this war. Our call today is a hard stance with a real human cost,” Global Athlete said. “However, the cost on Russian and Belarusian athletes pales in comparison to the atrocities experienced by every single Ukrainian.”
This is not some squabble over the backyard fence or even long-simmering animosities. Russia invaded Ukraine under false pretenses, and the 11-month war has left thousands of Ukrainians dead and many more homeless. Entire cities have been leveled by Russia’s increasingly indiscriminate shelling, and parts of the country have been without power throughout the winter.
Bach and the IOC have cited Russian athletes continuing to play professional tennis and in the NBA and NHL as reason to allow them at the Olympics. But Bach and his buddies can’t have it both ways. If it wants the IOC to be this shining example of what’s possible when the world is at peace, it cannot operate like any other sports organization.
The IOC also says it will put safeguards in place to ensure no athletes who have supported Russia’s war will be allowed to participate, but good luck with that. International gymnastics officials tried to straddle that line initially only to have a Russian gymnast stand next to a Ukrainian athlete on the podium — wearing a “Z” across his chest — a week later. Some of Russia’s top gymnasts have been spotted at pro-war rallies or have shown support for the war.
How, exactly, does the IOC plan to weed those athletes out? And even if it somehow manages, what of Russian fans? Ask the Australian Open how easy it is to keep them from waving Russian flags or holding demonstrations.
“The Russian Olympic Team is part of the Russian state and Russian athletes are not politically free,” Global Athlete wrote. “Every Russian athlete competing in Paris has the potential to incite further lives lost in Ukraine.”
Like that of Sharpar, the former figure skater who is dead at 25.
The IOC can either stand with Ukraine or stay in bed with Russia. That it’s even a choice tells you everything about what the IOC really values, and peace and unity aren’t it.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
