All-Russian Swimming President Vladimir Salnikov has offered a grim outlook on the chances of Russia’s swimmers competing at the Paris Olympics, remaining at odds with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and their stance on only allowing them to compete as neutrals.
The IOC has yet to make a formal decision on the readmission of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the wake of their invasion of Ukraine last February, but World Aquatics has announced that will allow athletes to compete in its events as neutral, individual athletes, provided they meet a strict set of criteria.
After the World Aquatics announcement in early September, Salnikov said the change brought “no improvement” on the situation.
Most recently, Salnikov told Sport Express that the IOC’s current restrictions are unacceptable and he’s losing hope that anything will change prior to next summer.
“I think this is humiliation, but the International Olympic Committee continues to insist that there is no discrimination, this causes bewilderment,” he said (via translation). “I am even more surprised by something else, if you invite someone over for pies, you also want to enjoy the meeting, and if you don’t want communication, then you start coming up with reasons for guests not to come to you. That’s what they’re doing now – they’re coming up with reasons, it’s pointless to climb through a closed door, they don’t want to see us.
“As Irina Viner said, they (believe) it is necessary that we surrender with the white flag, for me this is unacceptable and I think that for the majority of athletes who felt all this discrimination, too. But I cannot and will not decide for others, I will only say that for me the state attributes are important values, without which I cannot imagine competing in competitions.
“Now parameters have been defined that we consider unacceptable, perhaps something will change tomorrow. Then we will gather with you and the athletes and discuss where we find ourselves. I am not saying that the Olympic Games are completely closed for us, but based on the fact “With what’s happening now, including the bedbug outbreak in Paris, the chances are close to zero. However, I don’t want to rule out the possibility that someone might end up at the Olympics at their own peril and risk.”
The IOC recently updated a Q&A on its website providing information on the situation with Russian and Belarusian athletes, holding firm that the organization “reserves the right to decide about the participation of individual neutral athletes with a Russian passport in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 at the appropriate time.”
“We are seeing that the participation of individual neutral athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport in international competitions is widely accepted by the athletes’ community,” the IOC said.
“We are here to support the athletes of the entire world to make their Olympic dreams come true. We continue to promote the participation of every athlete who accepts the rules, respects the Olympic Charter and has qualified on the field of play.”
Very weird “pie” analogy, Vlad. More appropriate would be “We get invited over for pie, but we bomb and shoot other people there eating the pie and we’re asked to leave.”
What’s a more substantial problem is security at Paris 2024. The world has become increasingly combustible beyond Ukraine, and the risk of terrorism, from multiple angles, is high. Something far worse than Munich could occur, if appropriate measures aren’t taken.
Israel is killing thousands of children and civilians and have completely bombed gaza where there is nothing left and yet they can compete but russia cant
The only similarity here is that both Ukraine and Israel were invaded. The big difference is that Israel has overwhelming military advantage.
Except that that UN has consistently issued numerous resolutions against illegal occupation by Israel, and Britain forcibly took over land from Palestinians to give to European Jews.
Has the UN ever issued resolutions against the U.S. for forcibly taking over land from the Native Americans and its illegal occupation by the Pilgrims? If we want to return to the beginning about whose land belongs to whom, let’s not leave out the Red, White, and Blue, who built American on the backs of African slaves and the near-genocide of the native people.
Every single death in Gaza can be blamed on the barbaric Hamas attacks on Oct 7th.
I’m sad for Chikunova. She would be legit strong favorite for w200br. And her technique is divine.
Don’t care about the rest.
I’d be more sad knowing that she doesn’t support the war if in fact she and other swimmers are aware of what Putin is actually doing.
You know how old Chikunova is, right?
That would be like asking Nathalie Coughlin in 2001 if she support US invasion of Iraq under false pretenses and fake news (WMD)
Even with Putin owning all ”state media,” thanks to Telegram and VPNs, everyone under the age of 40 knows exactly what is going on inside Russia and outside Russia. The truth no longer hides in darkness as it once did.
my heart is not breaking for them. Sorry swimmers that have nothing to do with this.
When will Israel be banned?
And it’s ok for Palestine to compete? SMH. 1400+ innocent people were murdered and they retaliate because of that. Don’t know Palestinian hospitals are being used as army bases? NATO no longer sees that as an issue when terrorist organizations use humans as shields.
If the argument for committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing is that a literal terrorist organisation is doing the same thing and/or “made you do it”, that defense is pretty unconvincing. I do think the comment is relevant as the decision on who gets banned from competing and why is completely political and doesn’t seem to be based on clear, consistent criteria, and I do feel bad for the Russian athletes that cannot participate for such arbitrary reasons
They gonna let Israel compete tho lmao
Well