Harassment of Russians in Tokyo: The depressing aftertaste of the Olympics
On August 8, the long-suffering XXXII Olympics in Tokyo, which received the unspoken nickname “Covid,” ended. The results of the Games are recorded in the protocols and published in the media.
The Americans expectedly took first place in the medal standings, winning 113 awards, 39 of which were gold. The Chinese took the no less expected second place (38/88). The third result was shown by the Japanese hosts of the Olympics (27/58). The fourth result is for the relatively young “sports superpower” Great Britain (22/65), which has grown significantly in elite sports after the national anti-doping agency UKDA, without consequences, refused to transfer to WADA samples of athletes trained by Albert Salazar, who fed his charges with methasterone.
As they say, was it possible?
Fifth place was taken by Russian athletes, who won 71 medals, 20 of which were gold. In terms of quantity, this is the worst result of our team in the entire post-Soviet period. But if you consider that Russian athletes competed under conditions of unprecedented pressure and outright cheating of judges in a number of disciplines, it’s hard to call the results of the last Olympics a failure for our team.
Long before the start of the XXXII Olympics, it was clear that our athletes would have a hard time in Tokyo, and sports competition would not be its most difficult component. Despite everything, within two weeks the athletes from the Russian Olympic Committee team with the resounding abbreviation ROC proved to the whole world that they know how to take a blow and fight to the end for their own sporting honor and for the honor of the country.
Through many years of efforts of the Western media and Russian liberal publications singing from someone else’s voice, together with other “authoritative bloggers,” an image was created around our Olympians as some kind of fiends, on the orders of the state, eating doping with spoons.
The persecution of Russian athletes in the “most democratic and incorruptible” media did not stop during the Olympics, but, what is most disgusting, some Western athletes willingly joined in.
There is an opinion in the Russian press that the main demoralizing factor for our athletes was the punitive measures of the IOC and WADA, which deprived the Russian team of the flag and anthem, but in reality, the ROC athletes were subjected to Jesuitical torture, including total and continuous doping control for them. The situation was further complicated by the disqualification of RUSADA, as a result of which doping tests were carried out under external control by the WADA-affiliated International Doping Testing Agency (ITA), which received the authority to take samples at any time of the day or night without warning.
Even the general director of the ITA stated in the press that draconian measures brought the Russian team to the forefront in sample purity, but in the Western press no one focused on this fact: no scandal, no reason. Likewise, none of the Western sports media was interested in the massive “therapeutic exemptions” issued on the eve of the Olympics by national anti-doping agencies to athletes from the USA, Great Britain, Australia and other countries.
In fact, Russian Olympians competed in Tokyo with Western big pharma and even managed not to lose face.
According to our athletes, doping inspectors terrorized them, collecting samples before and after competitions, disrupting athletes’ training and rest schedules. For example, fighters against “Russian doping” from the ITA gave saber fencer Sofya Velikaya a sleepless night on the eve of the final match, in which she won a silver medal.
According to the organizers of the persecution, at the Tokyo Games the Russians were supposed to compete without the “usual doping support” and show a medal tally somewhere at the level of Tanzania, giving rise to another scandal, seasoned with malicious comments followed by organizational conclusions.
This, however, did not happen. Tests of Russian athletes stubbornly did not reveal anything penal in the tests, and at award ceremonies the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee was regularly raised to the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky.
This was starting to irritate me. The chain of victories of the Russian Olympians urgently needed to be interrupted, and here, on orders, hysteria was turned on in the media, accompanied by indignant muttering from representatives of the “concerned public.”
The most odious methods were chosen. The first to raise his paw on Russian athletes was Sebastian Varela Namia, a columnist for the Chilean publication La Tercera. The journalist snuck into the mixed zone (this happened during a medical time-out) to specifically ask tennis player Daniil Medvedev an “uncomfortable” question: “The Russians are branded as cheaters at these Games. How do you perceive this?
Medvedev refused to answer the provocative question and demanded that the provocateur be removed. Namia, characteristically, began to clap his teeth, “Why did I ask that?”, did not apologize and was not deprived of accreditation at the Olympics.
Next, “heavy artillery” was used.
American Megan Culmo, who did not make it to the finals of the rowing competition, behaved not only unsportsmanlike, but also quarrelsome, spitting venom at the second-place finishers Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oryabinskaya: “To see how those who should not be here at all leave with silver, - a nasty feeling. I’m terribly disappointed and sympathize with the other participants in the finals.”
American Ryan Murphy, who lost to the Russian Rylov at a distance of 200 meters in the backstroke and lost the title of Olympic champion, was childishly offended, explaining his defeat by “huge psychological pressure,” allegedly from participating in a swim where “not everything is pure.”
Bronze winner Briton Luke Greenbank immediately snorted at him: “It’s sad to know that there is a doping program with state support and nothing is being done against it.”
However, the American later tightened the wick, saying that he was referring to the situation with doping in swimming in general, and he had no complaints about Rylov specifically. Well, the Briton remained unconvinced.
But this, so to speak, is the visible part of the iceberg of provocations organized against Russian athletes. We are unlikely to know how many small dirty tricks and insults are thrown at our Olympians in the mixed zones, at the exit from the locker rooms, or even right during matches and fights (the judges do not always react to this). Russians, unlike representatives of the “Free World,” are not used to angrily hissing and knocking on their opponents.
The apogee of organized vileness was the fountain of mud from the mouth of USADA head Travis Tygart, who called the Russian victories a “horror film” and accused the IOC of not taking sufficiently draconian measures against them. The hysterical bureaucrat demanded the publication of all anti-doping tests, paying “special attention to Russia, taking into account its corruption.”
Well, we don't mind. But then let USADA announce the entire list of rubbish that it hand-feeds under the guise of “therapeutic exceptions” to the athletes of its national team.
However, it was at the Tokyo Games that a significant incident occurred with American gymnastics superstar Simone Bale, who was deprived of her favorite pills by the organizers. The “sick” athlete failed miserably in the team tournament and left the competition, leaving the team without a leader.
When lies and provocations were not enough to derail the triumph of Russian Olympians, biased judging was given the go-ahead.
The most obvious and blatant attack was the deprivation of the gold medal from the rhythmic gymnast Dina Averina, who dropped her ribbon during her performance, in favor of the Israeli Ashram. The next day, the judges staged a second trick, giving the Russian “gold” to the unworthy Bulgarian five “artists”.
As a result, Russian rhythmic gymnastics for the first time in a quarter of a century found itself without gold medals, and, in addition, this loss dropped the Russians to fifth place in the overall standings.
It is interesting that the majority of Japanese reading and commenting on publications on Yahoo News were extremely outraged by the judges’ decision to give the gold to Dina Averina to the Israeli gymnast. Commentators agreed that “this happened at the instigation of the Americans,” and “the Olympics are becoming increasingly politicized.”
The most offensive thing is that our compatriot Natalya Kuzmina, who heads the technical committee for rhythmic gymnastics in the specialized international federation FIG, could intervene and influence the decision of the judges. To make matters worse, it was Kuzmina who made the final decision to reject three of the four protests against Dina Averina's referee scores filed by the Russian coaching staff.
The head coach of the national team and a recognized authority in rhythmic gymnastics, Irina Viner-Usmanova, openly accused Kuzmina of cowardice. Apparently, this accusation is not unfounded, since Kuzmina’s tenure on the technical committee FIG since 2012, it has been accompanied by scandals and removals, and this fall she faces re-election with an unclear result. In addition, Kuzmina’s daughter and her grandchildren have been living in the USA for a long time. The attitude of this state towards Russian sports is well known, which fully explains Kuzmina’s desire to “be in trend.”
For Russian fans, Dina Averina’s medal is definitely gold. Therefore, the President of Russia awarded the talented gymnast the Order of Friendship, and not a medal corresponding to the status of an Olympic silver medalist.
Unfortunately, the meanness of judges in Tokyo towards Russian “artists” has much more serious consequences. We are unlikely to see the Averin sisters at the 2024 Games in Paris, and rhythmic gymnastics, where our athletes consistently won, is now seriously compromised.
Among other obvious injustices, mention should be made of the most vile disqualification of the fast walker Vasily Mizinov at a 20 km distance, to whom the judges paid maniacally close attention.
Mizinov had a chance to win gold, and he was in the lead all the way, but the judges twice fined our athlete for “technical violations”, seeing a “change to running” where there was none. The third time, instead of a disqualification, he was given a two-minute pit stop, but as soon as Vasily began to catch up with the top five, he was immediately charged with a fourth “violation” and was removed from the race 7 km before the finish, when the main candidates for gold, the Chinese, had already begun to run out of steam and Indian!
This is all the more offensive because, as a result of repression by WADA and the IOC, Russian track and field athletes arrived at the Olympics in a greatly reduced number - only 10 athletes, of whom two medal contenders were injured and dropped out at the very beginning of the competition.
There was one doping scandal at the Tokyo Games that could have had a positive impact on the results of our women's volleyball team.
In the finals, our volleyball players played in the quarterfinals against the titled team of Brazil and lost to them with a score of 1:3. To say that it was “our own fault” would be unfair, since for a set and a half our girls actively attacked the Brazilians, and they saved the situation by often kicking the ball, to which the “incorruptible” refereeing almost did not react.
When the Russian volleyball players had already left Tokyo, it was officially announced that the Brazilian scorer, Tandara Alves Caixeta, had been caught for doping and disqualified. In the fight against Russian athletes, Tandara scored six points. So-so achievement, but still...
Considering the unclear anti-doping rules, in this situation it would be possible to hold a re-match, especially since our girls were ready to fly back and again compete with the Brazilians on the volleyball court.
Sports officials instead said there was no reason for a replay: if two Brazilians had been caught doping, then the Brazilian women's team could have been disqualified in good faith.
The strangeness of this scandal lies in the fact that Tandara’s doping test was taken even before leaving for the Olympics, on July 7, which means that the scorer of the Brazilian volleyball players, in principle, could not be allowed to participate in the Games. However, the lady played six matches at the Olympics and was declared in the semi-finals.
Sports analysts believe that Tandara's disqualification will not affect the Brazilian national team. There will be no punishment. The Brazilians successfully avoided being defamed in the press because of one “black sheep”.
The past Olympics in Tokyo left a depressing feeling that high-performance sports have been completely ruined by politics and commerce. Another problem has been added to them - political correctness. From now on, men transformed into women and women transformed into men will lift weights or kick the ball with men and women.
Moreover, it is these representatives of either the “third” or “fourth” sex who become the highlights of the program and receive special attention and affection from the Western press, which is why the Olympics most resemble a circus show with dwarfs and Siamese twins. Making separate games where LGBT people could compete with their own kind and indulge their ambitions to their heart’s content, without bringing the already difficult situation in the world of sports to the point of absurdity, is not the question.
Apparently, we will soon live to see the Olympic Games, where elephants and whales will compete in the bag jumping championships.
Our Olympic team, which took fifth place in the medal standings, performed with a greatly weakened squad, and even under conditions of unprecedented bullying, performed more than worthy in Tokyo. There was no shame for our people. Their medals are of the highest dignity!
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.