It now emerges that the Internation Olympic Committee has barred a unified Russian team from participating in the Summer Olympic Games scheduled to take place in Paris.
According to Russia Today, the IOC is allowing only 40 Russian athletes to compete in the 2024 Paris Summer games and only under a “neutral” flag. In what can only be a partisan political decision by the body, it was revealed by International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice President John Coates in an interview with Sunday’s edition of Australia’s Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
From the report in Russia Today:
In September, however, IOC President Thomas Bach said athletes from those countries could be allowed to take part in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris under a neutral flag and on the condition they “do not support the war and are not linked to the military, or to other services.”
Ever since the 2014 Maidan coup when the US overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine and installed their own puppet regime, the Russian SMO was a long-time coming. Even sporadically to this day, the newly imposed government began almost daily bombardment and shelling of the Russian inhabitants in the country’s east, also known as the “Donbass”. This daily onslaught eventually resulted in a civilian death toll of almost 20,000. The Russian president was hesitant to act at first and even tried brokering a peaceful solution (the Minsk and Minsk 2 Accords), but eventually had to comply with the demands of the state DUMA and put a stop to it.
The SMO was then and is now, a war of liberation.
So, if you support your country’s effort to stop the killing and murder of fellow citizens in another country or, if you participated in that effort, you’re barred from the games. So much for the principles and charter of the Olympic Games. It would appear that the International Olympic Games aren’t really international at all, more US-Euro-centric, aligned with the craven political goals and agendas of western governments, a posture inconsistent with the spirit of the games.
Israeli Genocide and the IOC
From Article 5 of the Olympic Charter:
Peace: The Olympic Games serve as a symbol of hope and peace, aiming to unite the world in a peaceful competition. The Olympic Truce, an ancient Greek tradition revived in modern times, calls for a halt to all conflicts during the Games, promoting peace and conflict resolution through sport.
Without standing in moral judgement of one government or another and, if one accepts the idea promoted in Article 5 of the Olympic Charter, then that principle should be applied even-handedly to all.
Israel should likewise be barred from the games.
Apparently, the IOC values little the lives of the Palestinian people but, more, the interests of western governments and their criminal agenda in Ukraine.
If they valued all human life and were just in their stance and the application of the same standards for all -a spirit consistent with that of the Olympic Games and fair play, then the Israeli team would be barred.
The Israeli government is engaged in a brutal ethnic cleansing operation and an active genocide in Gaza and greater Palestine in front of the whole world — and no one is calling out the IOC for their grotesque hypocrisy!
Devaluation of the Olympic Games
Barring the Russian team from participating in the games devalues them. Russian Athletes have been, historically, some of the best in the world. Without their participation, the games will be stained and only a shadow of what they can be. They cannot be a true representation of the best, since some of the best will be excluded from the competition.
This sentiment was echoed by Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.