International Olympic Committee News

[thepharoah 2,413]

The quality of Russian and Belarus players in tennis played a vital role in this decision and that's why it was much easier for another independent sport organizations like Formula 1 and Moto Gp to get rid of them 

[Monzanator 4,846]

ATP and WTA are private companies and essentially the core of this sport. ITF organizes the Grand Slams and Davis/BJK Cup but those are secondary events in largely individual sport. This is like those major leagues in USA, like FIBA could never intervene into NBA which has even adopted slightly different rules to international basketball over the years. There is no global government body that technically means less than ITF in tennis. If they alienated the top players nobody would come to watch some ITF 50k stalwarts playing in Masters-level tournaments and the money loss would be huge. Wimbledon thought they are bigger than tennis but nobody followed them and I believe All-England club is already considering the change on the ban given serious financial loss - not to mention from a PR stand point.

[Olympian1010 8,276]

IOC doubling down on their statement. Definitely looking more and more like this will be the second Olympics in a row dominated by politics.

 

 

[JoshMartini007 2,813]

How about a compromise?

 

Unban Russia/Belarus due to the Ukraine invasion, but ban Russia for their doping scandals?

[Monzanator 4,846]

IOC will easily call Ukraine's boycott bluff. Like I've said before, the worst part for Ukraine is that Games will be held in France and not some Asian country like Korea for instance.

[Giovanni Gianni Cattaneo 142]

what do we mean? That all this is nonsense. As reiterated, this is already how it works in tennis and no one is talking about a boycott. That it would seem anti-political for Ukraine to boycott the games in Paris, at the home of one of its major allies. That politics and sport should remain separate. That the best answer ever is a beautiful photo, dating back to Rio, of two gymnasts, a North Korean and a South Korean exchanging affection. In that picture is my answer. I miss Samaranch, I even miss Rogge (manager without praise but above all without infamy or damage) and I don't understand why Bach is still there. That, while condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there are other wars in the world today, in the history of games, even recent, there have also been countries that have admitted invaders, such as China militarily occupying Tibet and everything is fine. That Britain militarily occupies several corners of the world and that's all right.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Sindo

[phelps 8,456]

8 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

IOC doubling down on their statement. Definitely looking more and more like this will be the second Olympics in a row dominated by politics.

 

 

the answer should be only a loud "Fuck you and your shit".

[Dragon 2,061]

 

[Vektor 3,326]

3 hours ago, Giovanni Gianni Cattaneo said:

what do we mean? That all this is nonsense. As reiterated, this is already how it works in tennis and no one is talking about a boycott. That it would seem anti-political for Ukraine to boycott the games in Paris, at the home of one of its major allies. That politics and sport should remain separate. That the best answer ever is a beautiful photo, dating back to Rio, of two gymnasts, a North Korean and a South Korean exchanging affection. In that picture is my answer. I miss Samaranch, I even miss Rogge (manager without praise but above all without infamy or damage) and I don't understand why Bach is still there. That, while condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there are other wars in the world today, in the history of games, even recent, there have also been countries that have admitted invaders, such as China militarily occupying Tibet and everything is fine. That Britain militarily occupies several corners of the world and that's all right.

You can't separate politics and sport at the time of such a major military conflict. If you think that this is comparable to the Korean War or the Vietnam War, or any other war since WW2 you are fooling yourself. It's the largest attempted landgrab in Europe since Hitler was defeated, the historical significance of such an event is massive and can't be brushed aside as just yet another war. Making a "safe space" out of the Olympics would be foolish.

 

And yes, every Russian athlete, every Russian citizen is culpable. I say this as a Hungarian who knows that the fact that I am living in Hungary supports Orbán's system, regardless of how much I hate him. Russia is exactly like Hungary, just on steroids. They are all guilty, just like I will be guilty of being part of Orbán's regime if he does something truly awful, no matter how many times I vote against him. Putin isn't doing this alone. If Russia is like Hungary, the country is rotten to its core. People need to take responsibility for the actions of their nation if they live there and they are part of its society. Putin would have never started this war if the Russian society wouldn't accept such an action. 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Vektor

[Federer91 3,122]

On 1/29/2023 at 2:19 AM, thepharoah said:

I guess we haven't seen a major event OG or WC without political propaganda from 2006 WC, maybe London 2012 , but this propaganda started way before the start of OG, I feel like we are returning to 80s which I didn't live in 

Sadly yeah, i was hoping this topic would begin at the end of the year, or beginning of 2024, but no, we will get "glorious" 2 years of drama.