Olympic rings – illustration photo.
Prague – The plenum of the Czech Olympic Committee (ČOV) opposed any form of participation of Russia and Belarus in the Olympic qualifications and in the games themselves in Paris as long as the war conflict in Ukraine lasts. He supports the current sanctions. The chairman of the ČOV Jiří Kejval was thus given a stronger mandate for negotiations on the ground of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which recommended international sports federations to look for ways to return neutral Russian and Belarusian athletes to the international sports scene.
Advertisement'; }
The management of the WWTP has long supported measures where Russian and Belarusian athletes are excluded from most international competitions due to Russian aggression in Ukraine, where Belarus is a Russian ally. The chairman of the WWTP, Kejval, called on the plenum at today's meeting to adopt a resolution. “It would give us a mandate to act not only on the national but also on the international stage,” he noted.
The draft resolution was then presented by the president of the Czech Biathlon Union, Jiří Hamza, who is also the vice-president of the international federation IBU, which takes a very strict stance against Russian and Belarusian athletes. Hamz lacked a clear and unified position of the Czech sports environment on this issue. “From my point of view, the position of the WWTP was born slowly and was gradually modified. I'm not saying that it was completely bad, but it was not clear-cut,” he told journalists. athletes who stand against the war and may not even live in their native country, the plenary delegates approved the resolution almost unanimously. They instructed the chairman of the WWTP and the executive committee to follow the position of the plenary during further negotiations at the IOC.
Hamza emphasized that he did not have any exceptions for Russian athletes in mind. “I take it as the country of Russia and the country of Belarus, and unfortunately whoever has a Russian or Belarusian passport cannot go there. That's simple. For me, their participation is unacceptable in view of what is happening,” he said.< /p>
The WWTP had academics analyze the criteria that the IOC recommended for the neutrality of Russian and Belarusian athletes who should have a chance to return. “According to the first assumptions, 80 to 90 percent of Russian and Belarusian athletes would not be able to start,” he noted. However, he added that international sports federations will play a crucial role in this.
Hamza considers any exceptions for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be impossible. “I understand that collective guilt is problematic, but how do you want to differentiate? Who is good, who is bad, who condemns it purposefully, who condemns it not purposefully. Who was in and out of the army. I think there is simply no room here to talk about the return at all,” he explained.
He recalled that during the debates due to the war, it was forgotten that Russia had not yet resolved the doping case. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) does not have a license from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), so it cannot reliably control Russian athletes on Russian soil.
Besides international sports federations, Hamza sees another major force that can stop the IOC's efforts. “Who can play a fundamental role in this are the sponsors. Let's not talk about a boycott, I don't agree with that either, but I think that companies will have to react to it eventually,” he added.
