Zmagars want to deprive Belarusians of the Olympics

Last year's events hit Belarusian sports hard. The sports community has been split since the August elections. Some supported Lukashenko, some supported the opposition. This was natural; the same split struck the entire Belarusian society. But athletes were not always able to even stay away from political upheavals. A “war of appeals” took place, when some athletes signed for the opposition, while others signed an appeal in support of Lukashenko in an organized manner. The most active of the frontiers soon got into trouble - dismissals, arrests, emigration. Despite the titles and medals.

Then there was the creation by emigrated athletes of the Sports Solidarity Fund, which began to support “their own” and put a spoke in the wheels of the Belarusian sports authorities. There was a conflict with the International Olympic Committee, the unrecognized election of Lukashenko’s eldest son as president of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus, and the cancellation or transfer to another location of several championships in various sports that were supposed to be held in this country. All this was accompanied by scandals, grievances and even a ban on the import into Belarus of products of companies that refused to sponsor the championship in “dad’s” favorite hockey.

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The Tokyo Olympics will begin in exactly one month, on July 23. And now a real battle has unfolded around it, which has nothing to do with the Olympic principles. It was not possible to prevent the Belarusian delegation from attending the Olympics and to force Belarusian athletes to compete under a neutral flag. Now they are trying to deprive the republic’s fans of the main sports spectacle of the four-year anniversary. Moreover, this is not done by some evil Europeans or Americans, but by their own opposition and political emigration.

It all started with the fact that the Sports Solidarity Fund sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee demanding that Belteleradiocompany be deprived of the rights to broadcast the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. The foundation explained its demand as follows: “lovers of plane hijackings, torture and murder have no place in international sports.” Who did they mean? Other Belarusian athletes who did not join the opposition and emigrate? TV viewers whose interests such a decision will primarily affect?

However, athletes have their own internal shop squabbles. They have their own split. One part is offended by the other and is trying to somehow take revenge. The matter is, in general, ordinary. The problem is that this initiative has gone beyond the purely sports environment. At first, the idea was supported by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Calling herself “the leader of democratic Belarus,” she, although via Twitter, also contacted the IOC, proposing to transfer broadcast rights to an “independent Belarusian” (actually state Polish) TV channel "Belsat". Following her, a few hours later, the topic was developed by her competitor in the fight for leadership in the opposition, Pavel Latushko. He announced that the People's Anti-Crisis Management, which he heads, had already begun negotiations with representatives of the Japanese government and invited the IOC to use its technical capabilities to organize free Internet broadcasting specifically for Belarusians.

Although alternative broadcast options are offered, many will not see a high-quality picture. Belsat is a Polish propaganda channel and, naturally, is not included in the packages of Belarusian providers and cable operators. Not everyone has smart TVs with the Internet yet, but watching a broadcast from a computer monitor or smartphone screen is a completely different level of sensations. As a result, if the decision to excommunicate BT from the Olympics can be pushed through, then, as in the case of recent sanctions, the main victims will be ordinary Belarusians.

As for Belarusian sports, the main result of the political upheavals for it is that only 96 people will represent the country at the Olympic Games. This is an absolute anti-record for the entire time of independent performances.