While war rages, there is no reasonable pathway back to the Olympics for Russian and Belarussian athletes

The Canadian Olympic Committee is open to seeing a detailed proposal on the possible inclusion at Paris 2024 of athletes from Belarus and Russia.

But there is a massive proviso.

“This whole situation will look very different if the war is still going on in 18 months,” said David Shoemaker, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee. “I think everyone’s reaction to a possible proposal to include athletes from Russia and Belarus is predicated on an assumption that hostilities would have stopped.”

That indelible bottom line cuts right through what is otherwise a complex situation that pits the Olympic ideals of inclusion and peaceful competition against one another. As long as Russian troops continue to occupy Ukraine, kill Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and destroy Ukrainian infrastructure, there cannot reasonably be any consideration of Russian and Belarusian participation in any Olympic Games.

Full stop. Without peace, there is no inclusion.

Unfortunately, the International Olympic Committee re-lit this fire well in advance of Paris 2024 with last week’s announcement that a pathway to competition for Russians and Belarusians must be explored because athletes should not be excluded from the Games based solely on their passport.

However, a year ago the IOC excluded Russians and Belarusians from international competition because the Russian invasion of Ukraine breached the Olympic truce.

That invasion is ongoing. That breach continues. Surviving Ukrainian athletes are faced with the near impossible task of training safely for Paris 2024. If the circumstances that prompted the IOC to ban Russians and Belarusians a year ago have changed at all, it is only for the worse. So why make noises about inclusion now, with war still raging?

“We certainly think that everyone should slow down and carefully consider the complexity of this situation,” said Shoemaker. “We certainly have. We’ve consulted with our full membership, spent time with our athletes commission and board of directors and we participated in several consultations with the IOC to let our point-of-view at least be known and to share it to the extent it would be considered.

“We’re very much of the point-of-view that nothing has really changed for the positive since now almost a year ago, February of 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, after the breach of the Olympic truce when the IOC made the decisions that athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus should not be allowed to participate in international competitions. In fact, things may have gotten worse since that time. Quite likely.”

Ukrainian politicians and sports officials have raised the spectre of a boycott, but Shoemaker said that is never a satisfactory solution.

“The COC now on several occasions has expressed the strong view that boycotts do not work. I think that would be unfortunate. I think it would be penalizing Ukrainian athletes, and we all know Ukrainian athletes are struggling mightily to find places to safely train, and my gosh how are they going to qualify. So those questions need to be addressed.”

He said the COC’s next move will be reactive, provided the IOC follows through on its declaration and issues a detailed proposal for the potential return of athletes from Russia and Belarus.

“We haven’t seen a proposal yet, respecting the principle of bringing people together, but it’s got to be done with strong and clear criteria,” said Shoemaker. “I think the IOC sort of listed the areas: participating as neutrals, no unifying element, no breach of the Olympic charter, meaning no athletes who are actively participating in hostilities, and certainly that there be really good assurances of doping control during this period of exclusion. It must also include how Ukrainian athletes have been disadvantaged.”

He said it would also be important not to have Russian and Belarusian medals aggregated on the medal table, as that is a national privilege.

Shoemaker said the Canadian athletes he has consulted on this issue have expressed mixed emotions.

“On the one hand as athletes they have great sympathy for the other athletes who in many cases have nothing to do with the misdeeds of their government and would just like to compete. And on the other hand, especially for the athletes who have been around for awhile, they see this through the lens of the Ukrainian athletes who have been really disadvantaged by a war they didn’t ask for in their country.

“And they also see the aggressor here is a country that has now repeatedly flouted both international and Olympic order. And they’re having a hard time wrapping their mind around just letting them back in easily.”

dbarnes@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/sportsdanbarnes

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