White card or red card? The IOC celebrated the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace on Wednesday April 6 in its own way.
The Olympic body recalled in a long press release the way in which sport and the Games have brought populations together over the years, “ by building bridges and promoting understanding. » Among the examples noted by the IOC, the call for solidarity and peace launched by Thomas Bach in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Games; the joint parade of the two Koreas at the Games of Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Turin 2006 and more recently PyeongChang 2018; or the refugee team at the Rio 2016 Games then Tokyo 2020.
Wednesday April 6, Thomas Bach also marked the occasion by brandishing a white card (photo above), the symbol of peace through sport initiated by the Peace & Sport organization. The image was relayed by the IOC on social networks.
At a time when the news is dominated by the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, the day of April 6 has taken on a particular resonance in the sports movement. Forgetting for a time its sacrosanct political neutrality, the IOC took the lead in calling on all international federations from the start of the conflict, on February 28, to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from competitions. Its executive board also maintained its “ urgent recommendation » not to organize a sporting event in Russia or Belarus.
The Olympic movement followed. En masse. The vast majority of international federations have closed the door to events for athletes from both countries, often with immediate effect and at least until the end of the year. Few of them have dared to take a middle path, accepting Russian and Belarusian competitors under the guise of neutrality. FINA tried it. But she ended up backing down in the face of the threat from several countries – Switzerland and Germany – to boycott the 2022 Swimming World Championships in Budapest if Russian swimmers were present in the pool.
On the sidelines of the movement, the World Olympians Association (WOA) has taken a position contrary to the IOC recommendation. She opposes collective exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes. Its executive committee suggests that the decision whether or not to participate in a competition should be made by each individual, based on the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter. She recalls that, according to this Charter, the practice of sport must not be the subject of discrimination, including on the basis of “race, color, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status".
For Russian athletes, the year 2022 ended when it had barely begun. But, embarrassingly, the country's leaders continue to exercise their functions in the Olympic movement without having been escorted out.
Before its invasion of Ukraine, Russia had three presidents of an international federation in an Olympic sport: Umar Kremlev in boxing (IBA), Vladimir Lisin in shooting (ISSF), Alisher Ousmanov in fencing (FIE). The first two are still in place. The third was forced to take a step aside and temporarily abandon his presidential seat, due to the sanctions taken against him by the European Union. They prevent him from traveling to Europe, and therefore from going to Lausanne, to the headquarters of the FIE.
Last week, a Russian delegation was present in Doha for the annual FIFA congress. Its officials attended the meeting without any special regime being imposed on them. The Russian selection has however been definitively excluded from the road to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The IOC, for its part, did not suspend the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). It also did not ban, at least temporarily, its two members carrying a Russian passport: the former pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and the former tennis player Shamil Tarpishchev. Difficult to understand.
