World Courant
BBC
Russian athletes are banned from competing within the Paris Olympics as a result of battle of their nation in Ukraine
I am crusing throughout the river with an Olympic champion.
No, it is not the Seine. And this is not Paris. That a lot is obvious as we sail previous the Kremlin.
Beneath deck, Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Mariya Lasitskene takes half within the launch of an uncommon mission: a mix of athletics, style present and music occasion.
Mariya will not be in Paris to defend her Olympic excessive leap title. Crew Russia has been banned from these Video games due to the battle in Ukraine. A ruling by World Athletics signifies that monitor and subject stars from Russia will not be even allowed to compete as impartial athletes.
And for Mariya, that hurts.
“I can’t even deliver myself to observe the athletics at these Olympics,” she tells me. “It’s too painful. We must be there. The Olympics are a competition, the largest occasion on the planet.”
Mariya Lasitskene received gold within the excessive leap on the 2020 Olympic Video games in Tokyo and is a three-time world champion
The Russian press would not appear to assume so. From the start, newspapers right here have been throwing chilly water on Paris 2024.
After a gap ceremony that includes transvestites and what some noticed as a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Final Supper, gossip journal Moskovsky Komsomolets dubbed the Paris Olympics “The Video games of Devil.”
One other medium, Argumenty i Fakty, calls them ‘The Olympic Video games of Hell’.
It is beginning to appear like Russia may win the gold… however with bitter grapes.
“I believed the Olympics have been about sports activities. That’s not the case anymore,” Russian MP Mariya Butina tells me.
“It is about politics, faith, every part. It is very unhappy as a result of the unique thought of the Olympics was to create peace.”
“However Russia invaded Ukraine,” I level out. “That’s not ‘peace’, is it?”
“Russia has protected its folks,” Ms Butina replied, repeating the official story that Russia’s battle in Ukraine is all about self-defence.
In actuality, the Kremlin’s “particular army operation” quantities to an invasion of a sovereign, impartial nation.
AFP
After the 2016 doping scandal, Russia participated within the 2020 Olympic Video games below the identify of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
In Russia there has all the time been lots of curiosity within the Olympic Video games.
However these Olympics aren’t even being televised right here. They have not been for the reason that Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics 40 years in the past.
Russia used to ship lots of of athletes to the Summer time Video games. This time, solely 15 Russians competed in Paris as “impartial athletes” in sports activities resembling canoeing and tennis.
They don’t seem to be allowed to current themselves as a nationwide staff, so no Russian flags, no anthem. And the person athletes have needed to bear a screening process to find out that they haven’t any ties to the Russian army or safety providers and don’t actively help the battle in Ukraine.
Sports activities bans are nothing new in Russia.
In 2019, the nation was banned from main worldwide sporting occasions for state-sponsored doping violations. The ban was later lowered to 2 years. On the Tokyo Video games, Russian athletes competed below the auspices of the Russian Olympic Committee.
A Russian nationalist group has organised a sports activities competition in Moscow
On the sports activities competition I attend in a park in Moscow, there isn’t a choice process.
A Russian nationalist group has organised a day of what they current as conventional Russian recreations.
It is a world of distinction from Paris 2024.
I see two males mendacity on the bottom, engaged in a ‘stick wrestling’, making an attempt to tug their opponent to his ft.
On the soccer subject, one thing extra like a gang combat is raging, with groups in pink and blue vests preventing wall-to-wall.
Some issues right here don’t have anything to do with sports activities in any respect. In a nook, Russians, younger and outdated, are invited to placed on military garments and army gear. They pose with weapons and have their photos taken.
I discover little curiosity right here in what is occurring in Paris.
“I haven’t adopted the Olympics in a very long time,” wall-to-wall fighter Vadim tells me. “Not since Russia was banned. Russia is canceled in every single place.”
Excessive jumper Mariya Lasitskene has her athletics-fashion show-music occasion to maintain her busy for now. However Mariya admits the Olympics are “the dream of each skilled athlete.”
“Each athlete needs to compete with one of the best. That may solely occur at worldwide competitions,” Mariya tells me.
“Sports activities is the battle of the strongest. I do miss it.”
Russian media indignant over Paris ban, scorn ‘Hell Olympics’
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