Canadian athletes have mixed feelings about Russian participation in Paris – Winnipeg Free Press

A complicated issue is stirring complicated feelings for Canadian athletes travelling to Paris.

The question of whether the International Olympic and Paralympic Committee will allow some Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the 2024 Summer Games is a thorny issue.

The curtain had just fallen on the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing when Russia, with the support of Belarus, invaded Ukraine.

The IOC will allow several athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports who can prove they do not support the invasion to compete in the Olympics as “Individual Neutral Athlete” or AIN. In the Paralympic Games, they will compete as Neutral Paralympic Athlete (NPA).

As of Sunday, 15 athletes with Russian passports and 17 Belarusians had both been cleared and accepted an invitation to compete in Paris under the AIN flag, the IOC website said. Another 28 athletes declined the invitations.

Athletes from those countries are not allowed to participate in team sports. No flag, anthem or colors symbolizing Russia or Belarus are allowed, and no Russian or Belarusian government or state officials have been invited to Paris.

The Olympics officially begin with the Opening Ceremony on Friday, although some preliminary rounds are held on Wednesday. The Paralympic Games begin on August 28 and close on September 8.

Several international sports federations, but not all, banned the Russians and Belarusians immediately after the invasion. For some Canadian athletes, it is a bit out of sight, out of mind, as they have become accustomed to their absence.

“I’m more curious about what the environment will be like in the athletes’ village, knowing that a Ukrainian athlete has to live with a Russian athlete. Will it create tension or awkwardness?” asked Olympic weightlifting champion Maude Charron.

Russia has not been recognized as an Olympic country since 2016 due to evidence of state-sponsored doping during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

And it is doping that race walker Evan Dunfee still suffers from.

“They haven’t cleaned up their act. They haven’t admitted that what they did was wrong,” he said. “There are still systemic problems on the doping side of things. I still look at it through that lens a little bit, partly because that’s a world I know much better.”

Coxswain Kristen Kit, part of the women’s eight rowing team, has an opinion on both doping and the military aspect.

“I’m on the World Anti-Doping Athlete Council, so I’ve been in a number of meetings on this issue,” she said. “As someone of Ukrainian descent, my father is a first-generation Canadian, I feel strongly that Russian athletes and Belarusian athletes who have ties to the military, whether they’re paid by the military or have appeared in an advertisement or promotion for the military, should not be allowed to compete.

“I understand that it is very difficult to do due diligence on everyone who is involved, I actually think it is very important, because there is evidence. There is evidence that the Russian government is using athletes to validate their activities in Ukraine.

“From an anti-doping perspective, we have advocated and sought every opportunity to ensure that Russian and Belarusian athletes participate in the clean sport movement. The IOC is working hard to ensure that there is pre-testing. We can always do more. The WADA Athletes’ Council is always advocating for more, but we choose to trust the process.”

Russians will no longer compete under the name Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), as they did in Tokyo and Beijing. The IOC expelled the ROC in October for taking over sports organizations in Ukraine.

Montreal lawyer Dick Pound’s 44-year tenure as an IOC member included South Africa’s exclusion from the Olympics because of apartheid and the boycott of both the 1980 and 1984 Summer Games by countries.

Pound is now an honorary member of the IOC and has extensive experience of the clash between sporting ideals and geopolitics.

“You have this clash between one philosophy, which is that the Olympics welcome everyone and that you are not tarnished with anything because your passport is from a certain country, and that clashes head-on with the political reality, which is that politicians don’t care, they just want a blanket sanction against every Russian or Belarusian,” Pound said.

“It’s messy, but you’re trying to get the message across that we really welcome people who are not involved in the war or the conflict.”

There will be fewer AIN athletes in Paris than the 335 ROC athletes in Tokyo and 215 in Beijing, but their presence in Paris remains a hot topic in the sports world.

“I’m a big supporter of Ukraine and Ukrainian athletes,” said Canadian long-distance runner Charles Philibert-Thiboutot. “As a Ukrainian athlete, I would probably be devastated if I had to stand next to a Russian athlete. However, I think it’s difficult to put conditions on athletes’ participation based on military service, political involvement or political views.

“I am all for the Ukrainian athletes, but how we deal with this is a very difficult question.”

The Russian invasion came eight days before the opening ceremony of the 2022 Paralympic Games. The IPC banned Russians and Belarusians from visiting Beijing, citing the safety of athletes in the village and concerns that athletes and coaches would refuse to compete with athletes from those countries.

Since then, the IPC has joined the IOC and allows screened athletes to compete under sanctions.

Boccia athlete Alison Levine was not happy when she learned in January that the results of the 2022 ROC team figure skating championship would not be rescinded, despite the disqualification of a team member for doping. Canada would remain in fourth place.

“It’s a slap in the face to athletes like me, who believe in fair, real sport, that they’re still representing their country, but no longer their country, and everyone knows that,” Levine said.