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Cancelling Russia, Cancelling Ourselves Part 2 | William Thomas Online | William Thomas

Cancelling Russia, Cancelling Ourselves Part 2 


Standing for… ? 


CANCELLING RUSSIA, CANCELLING OURSELVES

Part 2.




WEAPONIZING SPORTS

by William Thomas



OLYMPIC COMMITTEE BANS TOP WORLD COMPETITORS 

International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, pledged that the IOC would remain apolitical. Just before banning Russian and Belorusian athletes “for political circumstances in which they have played no part,” Marsden mentions.



 Mass punishment of Russian Paralympians raises serious ethical questions -Forbes


PARALYMPICS ETHNICALLY CLEANSED 

Russian athletes who overcame daunting disabilities to compete in the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games were similarly assured by the International Paralympic Committee that they could participate, despite their dodgy origins. On the day before those gutsy competitors realized their Olympic dreams, the physically and politically challenged athletes were sent home. Along with their coaches, the sportswomen and men were devastated by the IPC’s racist ruling, which will not aid a single soul in Ukraine.

     “Even the Olympic principles were trampled on,” Putin protested. “They didn’t hesitate to settle the score with Paralympic athletes.” 

     An upset Oyvind Watterdal left his post with the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports. “It is a decision that is in sharp conflict with my values and perception of what sports should be,” the Norwegian official explained.

     While stressing that he is “a strong opponent of the ongoing war” because he “personally know[s] Ukrainians who are both above and below ground who are terrified,” Watterdal does not hold tennis players responsible. “I do this for my own conscience,” he said, “to stand up for my Russian colleagues and be able to stand and look them in the eye.”

     Instead of sacrificing Russian athletes on the trendy altar of blind prejudice, Watterdal suggests a different approach: “I believe sport can contribute to peace efforts, can pave the way to something we all want. What will we do after the conflict ends? How will we come at peace between ourselves?”


Anna Shcherbakova will miss the World Championships she’s trained so hard for. -David Ramos:Getty Images

Anna Shcherbakova will miss the World Championships she’s trained so hard for. -David Ramos/Getty Images


THINNING ICE GIVES WAY BENEATH TOP SKATERS 

Russian women won five of the last six World Figure Skating Championship titles. Before being defeated by the International Skating Union. 

     The absence of Beijing gold medalists Anna Shcherbakova and Kamila Valieva, as well as Russian teenage silver medalist Alexandra Trusova, from the World Figure Skating Championships diminished the showpiece held in France, observes 2014 Olympic champion, Adelina Sotnikova — before she was personally sanctioned by the EU.

     Regarding depleted rinks, Tatiana Tarasova questions the achievements of women's singles leader, Kaori Sakamoto in the absence of superior Russian stars. While Tarasova conceded that Sakamoto “did everything cleanly,” the renowned Russian coach described the Japanese star's abbreviated routine as a “skate from 20 years ago,” before noting, “The Japanese [girl] skated well, but this is not a high level, of course.” 

     Unlike the Russian skaters, Sakamoto-san did not attempt elements of the highest complexity. (In fact, no triple axels were attempted by any of the women skating in France.) The Olympic bronze medalist “won” with a score of 80.32. But only after the absent Valieva had set a world record 90.45 with her breathsucking triple axels at the European Championships.

     “If our girls took to the ice, she would have no chance of winning first place,” Tarasova bluntly observes, adding that Russian skaters, had they been allowed to compete, would have been “the first everywhere."

     “If you look at the big picture, the World Championships was interesting because there were Russian athletes,” contributes Kaori Sotnikova. “And now, for example, it will be boring for me to watch it, because our athletes have set such a high bar.” 

     The 2014 Sochi Olympic singles champion goes on to say: “they didn’t worry and didn’t remove from competition any country that participated in the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. But sports officials were angry when Russia decided to protect the Donbass and Lugansk from Nazis.”


ATHLETES TRAMPLED 

“Russian sportsmen and women are being used as pawns by the West in its efforts — not to criticize war, of which Western powers have been the greatest promoters over the years — but rather to inflict moral damage on the country through its athletes — revealing how hypocritical the West really is,” writes American author, Robert Bridge.

     The world of sport, now conspicuously deprived of one of the greatest sporting nations on earth, is the biggest loser from Western double standards and hypocrisy. It’s a tragedy that sports has allowed politics to trample so recklessly on the field of dreams.”


Alina Kabaeva -Visual China Group:Getty

Alina Kabaeva -Visual China Group/Getty

GYMNASTS TUMBLE 

The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique’s decision to suspend Russian athletes means that 18-time world gymnastics champion Dina Averina — whose twin sister Arina is also a multiple world and European title winner — is barred from this year’s World Cup series. Dina will also miss the World Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria

     “This sport was born in our country and until now Russia has been a trendsetter in rhythmic gymnastics,” comments Athens 2004 all-around gymnast champion, Alina Kabaeva. “The absence of Russia in this sport will lead the world rhythmic gymnastics to degradation.” But the world-leading Russians will continue to test each other and “develop”.

     After winning 14 World Championship and 21 European Championship medals, Kabaeva says, “there has never been a more disgraceful page in the history of world sports.” She believes “sport, just like culture, should unite people not divide them.”

     “Sport suffers because of this,” agrees Viner-Usmanova, head of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation pointing to the Olympian cancel culture. “This type of sport loses its relevance and will lose it completely if this continues.”

     The Russian Union of Athletes describes the situation as “sports genocide.”



Serbian fans demand, “Give Peace A Chance” -Alan Harvey : SNS Group:Getty

Serbian fans demand, “Give Peace A Chance” -Alan Harvey / SNS Group/Getty


LET’S PLAY POLITICAL FOOTBALL 

Before the football (soccer) club Red Star Belgrade engaged the Glasgow Rangers, Serbian fans in the stands unfurled seven banners listing NATO and American military campaigns — including the bombing of their own country. Their helpful reminder was accompanied by the message: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”

     But the tone-deaf Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is still gong to bar Russian players from the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers. The Russian women's team has also been told to forget contesting Euro 2022 this summer.

     The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has regressed even further, throwing Bad Russia completely out of the Nations League. In an even lower blow, Russia's youth teams were also expelled from men's and women's Under-17 and Under-19 Youth League competitions. 

     Russian and Belarusian football players should not be subject to sanctions because they are not responsible for the conflict,” objected UEFA president, Aleksander  Ceferin. 

     He blacklisted them anyway.

     Spartak Moscow legend Evgeny Lovchev believes UEFA has opened a “Pandora's box that will be hard to close… Today Russia is not good for them, but tomorrow it will be some other country.” 


HOCKEY PUCKY 

Meanwhile, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has s