Olympics | “They go packing, but we don't” – Antti Pihlakoski tells why Russian track and field athletes have no business going to the Olympics

International Olympic Committee IOC announced last Friday that it intends to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paris Olympics as so-called neutral athletes.

The decision received an immediate avalanche of criticism. Among others, the International Athletics Federation World Athletics (WA), whose chairman was prominently involved in the resistance Sebastian Coe immediately announced that the decision does not apply to athletics.

Finnish member of the WA board Antti Pihlakoski says that the decision was completely unanimous. According to Pihlakoski, the IOC's decision was expected in advance.

“All signs of the chairman of the IOC by Thomas Bach their statements and behavior hinted at it,” says Pihlakoski.

“At the same time, the conditions are such that I think no Russians will participate in the Games. Probably they themselves state that the conditions are discriminatory, and welcome the nations to their own Friendship Games in Russia.”

The Russians and Belarusian athletes and teams were widely banned from international sporting competitions after Russia launched a war of aggression in Ukraine in February last year.

In recent months, several restrictions have been eased or completely lifted.

Pihlakoski of the WA line says that it was systematically strict.

“Not an inch has been given up. Russia and Belarus are not welcome in athletics when they have attacked another country, and in any case systematically violated the principles of the sport.”

“The situation has not changed at all on the war front, at least not for the better, since the IOC's previous decisions. Still, they go packing, but we don't,” assures Pihlakoski.

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If sport has an opportunity to influence the world to live a more peaceful life, then it's good to take it.

Russia was closed from prestigious competitions even before the invasion of Ukraine, although Russian athletes were allowed to compete with the status of neutral athletes at that time.

At that time, it was a state-led doping program.

“To put it bluntly, the whole rest of the sports world was screwed. We wanted to change the doping culture into an anti-doping culture, and we kept a close eye on Russia. We created a neutral athlete status, where the processes and rules were thought out very carefully.”

According to Pihlakoski, there is currently no visible process in sports that could be used to reliably check whether an athlete was supporting the war or not.

“Someone has been able to recover social media posts that have since been deleted. Then if a Russian athlete comes to Paris, there will be a lot of trouble when it is found that he supported Vladimir Putin. Then the focus goes completely in the wrong direction from sports,” Pihlakoski laments.

In Pihlakoski's opinion, it is also good for people to remember how in Russia sport is an integral part of both domestic and foreign policy.

“A large number of Russian athletes are on the payroll of the army, advance to high ranks such as majors, and are part of that machinery. They are not grown up in sports clubs in the same way as in many Western countries.”

Although it's about the Olympics, the sports federations have the final word instead of the Olympic Committee.

Pihlakoski states that in organizations the chairman often has a lot of power.

“If the chairman has an opinion, then easily everyone agrees. But Sebastian Coe has extensively asked the opinions of board members, both bilaterally and in meetings, and the decision has been unanimous.”

Pihlakoski himself says that he is personally one hundred percent on the same line as WA.

“Even when the war started, Coe called and asked for an opinion. I told him that, and he said that it was good, because he himself agrees.”

“If sport has an opportunity to influence the world to live a more peaceful life, then it's good to take it.”

Pihlakoski says he is closely following the discussion in Russia.

“Yes, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that when thinking about the possible consequences of the war in Ukraine, they did not take into account how strongly sports would react. It can have its own significance in the future as well.”

in Finland the idea of ​​boycotting the games was quickly raised. Pihlakoski does not like this idea.

“That would be playing into Putin's lair”, he states succinctly.

Pihlakoski recommends that other sports take the same approach as athletics and not follow the IOC's decision.

“I hope that the athletes could prepare without the pressure of someone pushing them to boycott. The sports federations should decide as we have decided now – it's a really clear game.”