Introduction

DUNCAN MACKAY EDITOR, INSIDETHEGAMES

On February 24, Vladimir Putin launched the Russian invasion of Ukraine to widespread condemnation from across the world.

The International Olympic Committee, which had just overseen the highly controversial Beijing 2022 Winter Games, was immediately plunged into its next major crisis.

If Putin expected an easy ride from his friends in sport, who had previously been so quick to cosy up to him and have their pictures taken, then he was to be mistaken.

A scathing statement from the IOC dropped into inboxes on the very same day the invasion began, which scolded Russia for breaking the Olympic Truce.

On February 28, the IOC went a step further and recommended that athletes from Russia and Belarus be banned from international competitions.

The situation could not have been more different from the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, when IOC President Thomas Bach and Putin were seen clinking champagne glasses.

Russian athletes - it was made clear - were no longer welcome at sport’s top table. International Federations quickly towed the IOC line and announced their own bans.

In this latest issue of The insidethegames.biz Magazine, chief feature writer Mike Rowbottom takes us through how sport has punished Russia since the invasion began.

Editorial intern Leticia Bila tells the story of how athletes - particularly those from Ukraine - have reacted to the conflict and how they have made their voices heard.

There are, of course, two sides to every story and some Russian athletes have been impacted by the sanctions despite carrying no fault themselves.

I have brought together the other side of the story, to find out what the view is in Moscow.

War is nothing new for the Olympic Movement, with conflict often rearing its ugly head and spilling over into the organisation of sporting events.

Historian Philip Barker takes a look at the times shelling and bombing has taken the focus away from the action on the field.

If it was not for the invasion, Beijing 2022 would likely have featured more heavily in this magazine.

The build-up to the Winter Olympics in China included numerous questions and debate about the host nation’s human rights record, and the Games themselves proved to be just as dramatic.

It was insidethegames.biz which exclusively broke the major story to emerge from Beijing - that 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva had failed a drugs test.

Our team in China were accosted by Russian journalists after our story was published, and we even received death threats online.

But when it was confirmed that what we had written was true, the news quickly developed into one of the all-time major Olympic stories.

Valieva, who was sensational in guiding her country to gold in the team event, was the heavy favourite in the women’s competition.

After the Court of Arbitration for Sport allowed her to compete, it was tough to witness the youngster fall apart during her free skating, as she tumbled from first place to out of the medals.

If this was not enough drama, Beijing 2022 was also the backdrop for the re-emergence of Peng Shaui, the Chinese tennis player who disappeared from public view to great concern after accusing a senior official of sexual assault.

Senior reporter Michael Pavitt was one of our team in Beijing for the Games, where he experienced the “closed loop” system designed to combat the spread of COVID-19.

In these pages he tells us about his experience.

Valieva’s story brought the issue of age limits in sport to the fore, particularly in figure skating.

As senior reporter Geoff Berkeley explains, while the athletes on the ice are often still children, a number of officials running the sport are in their senior years.

We will also be using this magazine to preview two major events on the 2022 calendar.

Mike Rowbottom looks ahead to the European Championships in Munich - the second instalment of the unique multi-sport event.

Reporter Michael Houston sets the scene for the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, a destination which has strong links to track and field and sports giant Nike, and is no stranger to controversy.

If you enjoy this magazine and our yearround coverage of the Olympic Movement, I would like to invite you to make a contribution to support our journalism at www.insidethegames.biz/contribute.

Every donation, however big or small, will help maintain and improve our work across the world in the years ahead.

We believe that Olympic news, such as our Valieva exclusive, should remain in the public sphere and be free of charge to read.

Our team has recently received three nominations for the 2021 International Sports Press Association Awards, for Pavitt, Dan Palmer and Liam Morgan, and your support would be greatly appreciated.

Enjoy the magazine.

Duncan Mackay

Editor

Russia has been shut out of global sport following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But with legal challenges on the way it has been a complex issue, as Mike Rowbottom explains.

Russia began its invasion of Ukraine - with Belarus allowing additional access via its border - on February 24. The incursion convulsed the world, and the world of sport also.

International Federations and representative bodies hastened - in the main - to enact their own version of the political and economic sanctions being applied to the

Kremlin by numerous different nations.

One of the critical early factors in determining the nature of this reaction was the recommendation announced on

February 28 by the International Olympic

Committee, which said that athletes from

Russia and Belarus should be banned from all international sporting events.

The IOC also withdrew the Olympic Order from Russian President Vladimir Putin,

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry

Chernyshenko and Kremlin deputy chief of staff Dmitry Kozak.

The IOC made it clear it would not normally seek to punish athletes for the decisions of a Government if they were not actively participating in them.

But it said the war in Ukraine was an exceptional circumstance and the IOC Executive Board had made the decision in order to “protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all participants”.

Russia and Belarus were additionally condemned for breaking the Olympic Truce.

At the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, IOC President Thomas Bach had called for politicians to follow the example of athletes and “give peace a chance”. Four days later, the invasion began.

“Sometimes you wish you could do more and this was the wish I expressed in the Closing Ceremony,” Bach said on March 3.

“Then you see that all the efforts were for nothing, that this inspiration was not strong enough, and then it’s horrifying.

“It's really horrifying.

“Again, we are coming to our limits. We have no police force, we have no military.

“We can offer moral support and help to shed light on this situation, but there our influence ends.”

There was an irony to this. At Rio 2016, the International Paralympic Committee, as voiced by its passionate President, Sir Philip Craven, banned Russian athletes from participation in the wake of the stateorchestrated doping regime revealed to have been in operation during Sochi 2014.

Branding the regime’s actions as “abhorrent”, Sir Philip added: “Their medals over morals mentality disgusts me.”

The IPC’s position contrasted starkly with that taken by the IOC, which chose to defer the decision over the extent of participation by Russian athletes at Rio 2016 to individual sports. This meant many of them were able to take part in the Olympics.

Two years later, there was more criticism of the IOC as it allowed Russian athletes to compete neutrally at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. It then lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee just three days after the Games had ended.

The IPC, by then under the Presidency of Andrew Parsons, maintained its ban during Pyeongchang 2018.

In 2022, however, it was the IOC which upped the ante while the IPC appeared to drag its feet.

MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES

Vladimir Putin's beloved judo is one of the sports which has sanctioned

Russia. Photo: Getty Images

In a weird type of mirror-image of what happened at Rio 2016, the IPC moved to the opposite side as it initially announced, on March 2, that Russian and Belarus athletes would be able to compete at Beijing 2022, albeit under the Paralympic flag and without being included in the medals table.

“In deciding what actions the IPC should take, it was fundamental that we worked within the framework of our new constitution to remain politically neutral and within the IPC Handbook, the rules and regulations that govern the Paralympic Movement,” said Parsons.

The very next day, the IPC position hardened as it announced that Russian and Belarus athletes would not be allowed to compete at Beijing 2022 after all.

This U-turn came after multiple National Paralympic Committees threatened a boycott, forcing the IPC Governing Board into a change.

Parsons said nations were “likely to withdraw” if the two teams were not banned, and claimed there would not be a “viable Games”.

He added that the environment in the Paralympic Villages was worsening as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, with many countries taking issue with the IPC’s original stance.

The unequivocal IOC statement triggered a number of similar announcements from IFs in the following days.

On March 1 World Athletics, which had already said it was “appalled” by developments in Ukraine and had condemned “the Russian military invasion”, announced that Russian and Belarus athletes would be excluded “for the foreseeable future” from competition.

The decision took “immediate effect” and meant no athletes from the countries were able to take part at the impending World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

The Russian Athletics Federation was already serving a ban which was imposed in November 2015 following the revelations of state-sponsored doping.

On the same day, the International Skating Union joined the list of IFs in banning Russian and Belarus athletes from its competitions.

Governing bodies representing rugby, sailing, baseball/softball, badminton, skiing, modern pentathlon, canoeing, equestrian, surfing and triathlon all arrived at the same position.

World Archery and the International Table Tennis Federation also confirmed that Russian and Belarus athletes and officials would not be able to participate in their upcoming events.

On March 2, the European Olympic Committees said it had “with reluctance” banned Russian and Belarus athletes and officials from the Winter European Youth Olympic Festival in Finland, which took place from March 20 to 25.

It cited a desire to protect participants’ wellbeing and the “integrity” of the event.

The International Weightlifting Federation confirmed on March 3 that it had suspended the participation of all athletes and officials from the two nations until further notice, and also banned sanctioned events in the countries.

On March 26, the Munich 2022 European Championships Board said it had decided not to allow the participation of Russian and Belarus athletes and officials at its event.

The decision was taken after consulting with the nine participating federations, representing athletics, volleyball, canoeing, cycling, gymnastics, rowing, sport climbing, table tennis and triathlon.

Formula One terminated its contract with the Russian Grand Prix, which had been set for September 25 at the Olympic Park in Sochi. Russian F1 driver Nikita Mazepin was also fired from the Haas team. “I do not feel this is fair,” he said.

The IOC stance may have been influential in prompting a shift of the original position being held by FIFA, football’s international body. But the robust statements issued by the football associations of Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic provided even more leverage.

FIFA’s initial stance following the invasion was to restrict the Russian national team to playing under the banner of the “Russian Football Union”.

But Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic all said they would refuse to play them in upcoming play-offs for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Polish Football Association President Cezary Kulesza described FIFA’s measures as “unacceptable”.

Soon afterwards, FIFA concurred with that position and the Russian team was banned from competition.

Russia’s effective exclusion from the World Cup came just four years after it had hosted FIFA’s marquee event.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino was awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship medal in 2019, as a thank you for his contribution to the tournament the year before.

Infantino called it “the best World Cup ever” but has recently come under fire for his close relationship with Putin.

On March 30, an apparent unsteadiness of the FIFA stance became apparent as it was criticised for allowing Russian officials to attend its annual Congress in Qatar.

A Russian bid to temporarily lift the ban on its teams was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which cited "competition integrity and safety issues".

Other major IFs operated in a similar manner to FIFA with regards to sanctions on Russian competitors, by shifting to tougher positions due to the weight of opinion within their sports.

On March 8, the International Swimming Federation announced Russian and Belarus athletes would be allowed to compete as neutrals, with FINA claiming it had a legally robust option to exclude them “if their attendance threatens the safety and wellbeing of athletes or places the conduct of competition at risk”.

This position had shifted by March 23 when FINA agreed to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing in any of its events, following a review of an independent risk assessment.

Russian Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin was removed by Haas.

Photo: Getty Images

MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES

No Russian athletes were able to compete at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade. Photo: Getty Images

Several countries had threatened to boycott the World Championships if athletes from the two countries were allowed to compete in Budapest.

The International Gymnastics Federation also got itself into difficulty after it announced on March 4 that it would ban Russian and Belarus athletes from its competitions - but only from March 7.

Unfortunately for FIG, a World Cup that took place in Doha from March 4 to 5 - the last where Russian and Belarus gymnasts could take part - did not pass without controversy.

Russia’s parallel bars bronze medallist Ivan Kuliak appeared on the podium sporting a “Z” symbol on his chest, that denoted support for his country’s actions in Ukraine.

Kuliak, who was subjected to immediate disciplinary action after what FIG described as “shocking behaviour”, said he would have done the same again if he had the choice.

On March 18, double Olympic swimming champion Evgeny Rylov was one of eight athletes identified as wearing the same “Z” symbol at a pro-war rally hosted by Putin at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, the main venue for the 1980 Olympics which also hosted the FIFA World Cup final in 2018.

Although skiing was among the IFs banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing at its events on March 1, the FIS did so only after pressure from the Norwegian Ski Federation to respond to the IOC recommendation.

Norway, frustrated with the original FIS stance, told the global governing body it would stop Russians and Belarusians competing at any World Cups it hosted, as well as the Ski Flying World Championships, regardless of the FIS position. Both organisations now share the same stance, with the FIS Council deciding that Russian and Belarus athletes could not compete at any event until at least the end of the season. It had already cancelled every remaining World Cup competition in Russia. “Over the last few days we at the Norwegian Ski Federation have been working intensely, and I am very satisfied that the FIS Council now have concluded that Russia and Belarus are excluded from upcoming events,” Norwegian Ski Federation President Erik Røste said. On March 29, the International Biathlon Union somewhat belatedly joined the majority of its fellow IFs by announcing a ban on Russian and Belarus competitors. The position will be reviewed by the IBU Congress from September 15 to 19 this year, if the ban has not already been lifted by the IBU Executive Board.

The IBU was joined in making a late call by World Skate, which hardened its stance on April 2.

The move to ban athletes for the actions of their Government will always carry a degree of moral uncertainty. Is it correct in any circumstances? If so, how serious do those circumstances need to be?

The reaction by international sporting bodies to the Russian military action has been almost universally condemnatory, but policies have not always been popular.

For instance, while the Norwegian Ski Federation’s forthright actions were so influential in shifting the position of its international organisation, there was dissent from one of the country’s leading sports administrators.

The International Boxing Association has claimed it cannot completely end its contract with Russian gas giant Gazprom. Photo: Getty Images

Øyvind Watterdal resigned from the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports Board in protest at the ban.

Watterdal cited a lack of consultation with the Athletes’ Committee, and added: “It is a decision that is in sharp conflict with my values and perception of what sports should be.”

While organisations such as FIFA, FINA and the IPC have been effectively cajoled into hardening their positions vis-à-vis Russian and Belarus athletes, other IFs have maintained a more nuanced - or weaker, depending on your point of view - position.

The International Judo Federation - representing the sport that is perhaps closest to Putin’s heart - adopted a rigorous but more complex position in their bold announcement on February 27, the day before the IOC’s big reveal.

Despite how close Putin is to judo, Marius Vizer, the IJF President, announced that he would be stripped of his status as Honorary President of the Federation and his ally Arkady Rotenberg was ditched as development director on the Executive Board.

All IJF events in Russia were also cancelled, but the country’s athletes, and those of Belarus, were allowed to continue competing as neutrals.

As it turned out, Russia withdrew from international judo events on March 14, saying it feared for its competitors’ safety. The Russian Judo Federation also admitted that, following the invasion of Ukraine, it would be difficult for athletes to obtain entry to several countries.

In a move similar to that of the IJF, World Taekwondo stripped Putin of an honorary black belt they had presented him and also banned athletes after initially only barring flags and national anthems.

The political situation has been particularly intractable for the International Boxing Association, which is currently striving to reclaim the Olympic role which was removed before Tokyo 2020 following years of governance that was catastrophically bad to the point of corruption and financial collapse.

IBA President Umar Kremlev was formerly the secretary general of the Russian Boxing Federation, so the announcement that the IF would follow the prompting of the IOC - banning Russian and Belarus boxers and cancelling events planned in the countries - provoked widespread censure back home.

The decision nevertheless underlined the seriousness with which the IBA is seeking to reassure the IOC that it is an organisation fit enough to resume its Olympic role in time for Paris 2024.

The IBA position was revealed to be more excruciating on March 21, however, when it claimed it was “not currently possible to completely cancel” its controversial but crucially lucrative sponsorship deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom.

IBA secretary general István Kovács issued a letter, obtained by insidethegames, to the heads of all of its National Federations where he highlighted the importance of Gazprom in ensuring the future of the worldwide governing body.

“You will also be aware that, thanks to its partnership with Gazprom, IBA has been able to effectively support National Federations, competitions and athletes, while also settling the debts that had threatened our future and transforming our organisation,” Kovács, who won bantamweight gold at Atlanta 1996, wrote.

“It is not currently possible to completely cancel the Gazprom contract.”

Tennis, like judo, has chosen to censure officials while allowing athletes to continue to compete as neutrals.

This has given players such as Daniil Medvedev the opportunity to offer their views on the current Russian incursion to a worldwide audience.

Medvedev, who has reached world number one this year, was relatively prudent when asked about the situation but did insist: “I’m all for peace”.

Women’s Tennis Association chief executive Steve Simon strongly defended the decision to allow Russian and Belarus players to remain in competition.

MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES

Ukraine's team pose at the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics, where Russia was banned. Photo: Getty Images

“I feel very, very strongly that again these individual athletes should not be the ones that are being penalised by the decisions of an authoritarian leadership that is obviously doing terrible, reprehensible things,” he said.

Russian and Belarus players have been banned from appearing at Wimbledon, however, following a decision made by the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

The International Cycling Union stance took the same form as the one adopted within tennis. The UCI said on March 1 that it had taken a decision “based on obtaining a balance of all interests” after banning all teams and sponsors from Russia and Belarus, and stripping both countries of scheduled events. Individual cyclists were still able to compete as neutrals.

The International Sambo Federation, a Russian sport, has adopted a similar stance to the UCI, although it has come under pressure from the Sambo Federation of Ukraine to ban Russian and Belarus athletes completely.

On March 10, it was reported that 16-year-old Ukrainian national junior sambo champion Artem Pryimenko had been killed along with his father, mother, grandmother and two brothers during a Russian airstrike carried out on the town of Sumy.

Inevitably, there have been details and discrepancies within IF policies that have led to confusion and controversy.

Weightlifting’s stance drew predictable criticism from Russia’s Maxim Agapitov, a member of the IWF Executive Board, who said the IF had been pressured into imposing an “absolutely discriminatory” ban by the IOC.

“Sport must remain out of politics, any discrimination is unacceptable, these principles are registered in the Olympic Charter,” Agapitov said. “Athletes have always acted as peacekeepers, and sport becomes the basis for mutual understanding in the spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”

However, the Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation has demanded to know if Agapitov - who has said he plans to run for the IWF Presidency - has been allowed to remain active within the organisation.

Ashley Metcalfe, chief executive of British Weight Lifting, wrote to the IWF leadership to say its statement “seems to still allow representatives of these countries to hold positions of power within our sport and influence the future decision-making process, which cannot be appropriate or acceptable”.

“In line with your desire to preserve the integrity of our sport, can you please confirm in an open, public and transparent manner that this is not the case?” he added

Ursula Papandrea, the former Interim President of the IWF who is now international director of USA Weightlifting, said on March 12: “The ban’s essence will be undermined if exceptions are made for IWF officials and representatives of Russia or Belarus, namely Board, Committee and Commission members.”

While World Athletics was one of the most important and early movers in terms of imposing a ban on Russian and Belarus competitors, it has accepted the submission from the chair of its Russian Taskforce, Rune Andersen, to continue working for the restoration of the Russian Athletics Federation to international competitions following the 2015 ban.

It is a parlous and complex situation - and Russian legal challenges are in the offing...