The World Friendship Games are coming to an end. The multi-sport event, created from scratch by Russia at the request of the Kremlin as a snub to the IOC and the Olympic movement, will not take place. Not this year, not next year. And probably not in the years to come either.
Vladimir Putin himself announced it on Monday, December 2, in a statement picked up by Russian media: the World Friendship Games have been postponed. But the Kremlin leader has not set a deadline. A way of indicating that they are forever removed from the calendar.
« In order to protect the right of athletes and sports organizations to freely access international sports activities, I hereby decree the postponement of the holding of the international competition of the World Friendship Games until the President of the Russian Federation gives further instructions", he explains in a decree published on the official website of the Russian government's legal documents.
End of story, then. The subject of virulent criticism from the IOC and WADA since their announcement in the fall of 2023, for their clearly political dimension, the Friendship Games will not see the light of day. They are consigned to the dustbin of history, with little chance of emerging.
The multi-sport event, initially scheduled for September 15-29, 2024 in Moscow and Yekaterinburg, had nevertheless been elevated to the rank of priority, even of national issue, by Vladimir Putin himself. It was to bring together 5.500 athletes, with a prize pool of 4,6 billion rubles (41,2 million euros at the current exchange rate). A winter version was even to complete the picture, organized in 2026 in Sochi, the same year as the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Milan-Cortina.
Last July, the first rumors of a postponement circulated in the Olympic movement, without being formally denied by Moscow. After the end of the Paris 2024 Games, Russia let the initial date of the Friendship Games pass without the slightest comment. Before the official announcement, on Monday, of their indefinite postponement.
A setback for Russia? On the surface, no doubt. The Kremlin has long made a big deal of its invention. Invitations had even been sent, initially to neighboring and/or allied countries. China, in particular, had promised the presence of a strong delegation.
But Moscow's refusal to pursue its idea seems to be part of Russia's new sports strategy. The recent resignation of the president of the National Olympic Committee (ROC), former fencer Stanislav Pozdniakov, heralded a very marked shift. After having long sought to return blow for blow, Russia is now playing the appeasement, dialogue and diplomacy card. It is preparing gently, without putting on gloves, for the arrival of a new president at the IOC.
It is no coincidence that the Kremlin decree announcing the postponement of the World Friendship Games comes just days before the elections for the ROC presidency, scheduled for December 13. Barring an unlikely scenario, the current Russian Sports Minister, Mikhail Degtyarev, will win. He is currently the only candidate, and is expected to remain so until the election.
The new strongman of Russian sport wants to embody a more flexible line, open to discussion and compromise. His message, and behind it the directives of the Kremlin, are no longer addressed to Thomas Bach, whom Russia has already erased with a vigorous stroke of the eraser. They are aimed at his successor, whose name will be known next March.
But Russia is praying to heaven that victory will elude Sebastian Coe, the most resolutely anti-Russian – at least in his capacity as president of World Athletics – of the seven candidates for the Olympic throne.
