Moscow, Europe Brief News – Except for the upcoming Paralympics, Russian athletes would not be able to take part in most sporting events all around the world from Wednesday.
The International Olympic Committee has decided that Russian and Belarusian athletes would not be able to take part in sports including biathlon, table tennis and a dozen others.
However, The International Paralympics committee has declared that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be able to compete at the main event in Beijing but only as neutral athletes without National symbols.
Blanket bans have been imposed in soccer, basketball and hockey, among other sports, following an appeal from the International Olympic Committee to exclude Russians and Belarusian from International events.
The IOC however, left a window with a possibility of allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part as neutral athletes as banning them on such short notice does not sound fair.
FINA has also announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes can compete without the national symbol. FINA governs swimming and some other aquatic sports. Besides FINA, the federation for boxing, gymnastics and fencing also takes a similar approach for the participation of athletes.
Russian Politicians Not happy with the Move
The Russian Politicians are highly criticising this move from sporting bodies for not letting Russian athletes compete in the games.
The Russian Football Star Artem Dzyuba criticised the bodies in his Instagram post saying “ I am against any war, War is terrible. I am against discrimination based on nationality. I am not ashamed to be Russian. I am proud to be Russian. And I do not understand why athletes have to suffer now”.
The Governing body for British motorsports has declared that they would not allow the participation of any Russian driver which has put the participation of formula one driver Nikita Mazepin in doubt for the British Grand Prix in July.
The sport’s international governing body also known as FIA has announced that athletes like Nikita Mazepin can participate but there are some restrictions for that to happen. The driver is restricted to painting a car in national colours for the race.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also led to a reshaping of sports corporate ties to Russia. English Club Everton ended the sponsorship with companies belonging to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
