Olympic sport: rake walking
On February 9, 2018, the opening of the Winter Olympics, rich in scandals and intrigues, took place in Pyeongchang, South Korea. A group of 80 Russian athletes in IOC-approved neutral gray clothes with derogatory tags “Olympic athlete from Russia” came out 55th. A volunteer carried a neutral flag with rings. Russia was clearly a stranger at this celebration of life. Even the nobility of the Korean fans, who unfurled the Russian national flag in the stands, did not warm us.
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A few days ago our athletes won a real victory in Lausanne. 42 Russian Olympians, in defiance of the IOC decision, did not quietly let the mud spilled on them and filed an appeal to CAS. As a result, the arbitration court completely acquitted 28 Russians, partially acquitted 11 more, and postponed consideration of the cases of three more of our athletes.
It would seem that the path to the Olympics is open for completely acquitted athletes - the non-comrades from the IOC can only sigh heavily and send invitations to all those acquitted. But the IOC leadership seriously dug its heels in, flatly refusing to invite Russians other than those who had already been invited to the Games. In turn, the CAS, at an offsite meeting in Pyeongchang on February 9, issued an illogical and contradictory refusal to consider the appeals of 45 Russian athletes and two coaches against the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not to invite them to the 2018 Olympics.
However, today a statement was circulated in the media by Albert Demchenko, coach of the Russian Olympic luge team, that IOC Chairman Thomas Bach put pressure on CAS, actually threatening to dissolve the authority.
Summarizing the results, we can say the following: the 2018 Olympics for Russia are actually ruined. The main contenders for Olympic medals have been eliminated from the game. The participants in the Games are fragmented and humiliated, so there’s not much to be expected from them for victories for the glory of the country, no matter how much some of them swagger.
The only important achievement is that Russian athletes managed to defend the results of the Sochi Olympics and regain their rightful first place in the medal standings.
Controllers from WADA have already rushed to shower Bach with kisses, saying that “these decisions are good news for WADA and all adherents of clean sport.” Numerous “clean” asthmatics and hemorrhoids applaud. The management of the Norwegian national team is busily unpacking and distributing WADA-approved mixtures and drugs to its “clean” athletes from the pharmacy kiosk they brought with them to South Korea. Canadian lugers, washing down high-quality tablets with ultra-pure water, hiss curses at the “unclean” Russian athletes admitted to the Games. Russian officials are furiously indignant.
Meanwhile, the next judicial defeat of our athletes lies on the conscience of these official fans of foreign sports trips, together with their children and household members, who love to bask in the rays of someone else’s glory, for which they did not lift a finger.
Even worse, Russian sports officials successfully turn the tables on the evil IOC led by Bach, on WADA, on the bald devil, just so as not to fall under the fire of public criticism, to put it mildly, again. Once again, they use patriotism to cover up their own mistakes, cowardice and unprofessionalism.
The rake is that our athletes again won victories on the legal front, while sports officials, cloned from the non-resisters Mutko and Zhukov, again proved their official inadequacy.
I don’t know if Bach was actually putting pressure on CAS, or if this is just another excuse, but instead of butting heads with the IOC in the courts, the Russian Olympic Committee sadly agrees with all the accusations, leaving athletes and coaches to deal with international officials privately.
It just so happens that the Olympic arbitration makes decisions based on the rules established by the IOC for its loved ones. According to the rules of the IOC, if the Olympic Committee of a particular country is deprived of all rights as punishment for some misconduct, then the IOC, in accordance with Article 59, paragraph 1.4 of the Olympic Charter, can itself decide what to do with athletes related to a particular (in our case, to the Russian) Olympic Committee.
That is, the IOC is capable of not allowing any national team into the Olympics if its left heel so desires. Even a team consisting of only lambs and heavenly angels. And, unfortunately, from a legal point of view, nothing can be done about it. The Olympic Charter does not discuss any rights at all for athletes of a disqualified National Olympic Committee - all decisions are made only by the IOC. And he makes decisions with his head, or with what other part of the body - it’s up to him to choose.
Simply put, when the IOC disqualified the Russian Olympic Committee, there should have been no Russian athletes at the Games in principle. With a flag, without a flag, in smart clothes in the colors of the national flag, or in gray prison uniforms.
Now imagine the storm of emotions in the West, where, because of the removal of Russian Olympians, they have already run to open the cellars and divide the medals among their asthmatics. The IOC suddenly, bypassing its own rules, smuggles a torn team of Russians into the Games. WADA is writhing in convulsions, asthmatics are choking with indignation, sports officials are dejectedly pushing bottles under their beds.
CAS, in turn, recorded that in the current circumstances, when the National Olympic Committee and its team are subject to sanctions for doping, the IOC has the right to independently authorize the admission of individual athletes on its own terms.
And not because the IOC is so kind. Even for tyranny according to one’s own rules there are limits. Otherwise, there will always be states capable of sending schemers away from sports by agreeing to organize an alternative IOC and alternative Olympic Games. And that’s what the matter has already been going on. Most likely, Bach’s comrades simply could not afford to miss out on the considerable profits from broadcasting the Games in Russia and the associated royalties for advertising and similar content.
In addition, having mercifully allowed a handful of Russian athletes to the Olympics, the IOC appears all in white: what kind of discrimination can we talk about, gentlemen, if the office seems to be stepping on the throat of its own swan song?
In any case, this is a departure from the initially unshakable positions and a clear compromise. From which it follows that Russian officials did not, wittingly or unwittingly, use the precedent abandoned by the IOC officials. The claw is stuck - strike while the iron is hot! If there were figures of Soviet origin on the Russian Olympic Committee, they would have fought over the national flag and anthem. And it may very well be that this right would be pulled out with teeth. Moreover, not a single court would undertake to consider Rodchenkov’s inflamed delirium.
So it turns out that while Russian athletes were personally defending their reputation and sporting achievements in court, the Russian Olympic Committee stood punished in the corner, blowing bubbles with its nose. If the committee and athletes had acted together, everything could have gone differently in Pyeongchang.
Now all that remains is to throw up our hands and regret the “neutral” Olympics, brand the disgusting IOC from the standpoint of turbo-patriotism, and in the event of a suddenly good performance by our athletes at the Games, joyfully present the results of their excellent organizational work on all corners and from blue screens.
One consolation: the media report that Rodchenkov had plastic surgery. The corrupt boy has already played his piano and is scrapped - his services are no longer needed, and many will want to hit his mustachioed face with a kirzach.
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