Olympic Committee hardened stance with Russia: 'Athletes are exploited for political purposes'

A harsh controversy broke out this Tuesday, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) hardened his stance with Russia after pointing out Moscow of wanting to “politicize sport”, after they promoted the 'Friendship Games' in September, an event that will compete with the Olympic Games, also with a winter edition.

Although the IOC will give approval to Russian athletes to take part in Paris-2024 under the neutral flag and on condition of not having supported the Russian invasion in Ukraine, He is clear in stating that we must “reject all participation and support” for this new event.

Serious accusations

The 'Friendship Games' (summer) will be held “a priori in Moscow and Yekaterinburg” in September, and the winter edition will be held in Sochi in 2026. The above join the 'Future Games', organized in Kazan from February 21 to March 3, in which there will be traditional disciplines with e-Sports, and the 'BRICS Games' in that city from June 12 to 23 and in which “athletes from 50 countries” would participate, according to Moscow.

It is clear that the IOC is not against these events, but it points out that the organization and the country have had that excuse for an “intense diplomatic offensive”, with direct contacts with “the governments of the entire world, in order to make Even more evident is their purely political motivation, the latter deliberately evade the sports organizations of their target countries2.

And the entity adds: “It is a cynical attempt to exploit athletes for political propaganda purposes,” violating the Olympic Charter.

IOC warns that Moscow has “a total lack of respect for global anti-doping regulations and the integrity of competitions,” recalling the problem with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), “regarding the 'Friendship Games', motivated by the institutionalized doping system put into practice by Russia during the Sochi-2014 Winter Games and which caused its exclusion from “Tokyo-2021 and Beijing-2022”noted AFP.