Status: 03/29/2023 3:30 p.m
Ukrainian athletes and politicians criticize the IOC recommendation for the participation of Russia and Belarus in international competitions: The athletes should only take part if they have fled and renounced their countries.
Sophia Naumova has been a weightlifter for five years and has since competed in several major competitions in Ukraine. For the 17-year-old from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk, it is clear that no athletes from Russia and Belarus should take part in the Olympic Games, even under a neutral flag. “I don’t think the proposal is right. Why should countries that want to destroy me and my families and my country participate?”
Medals melted or shot away
Naumova trains in Kiev, and Yuriy Kuchinov shares her views. The national weightlifting coach began his career in Soviet times and has competed in the Olympic Games seven times, including in Atlanta. In his view, athletes from Russia or Belarus could only take part if they had fled their countries and renounced them.
“How could I think otherwise,” he says. Naumowa’s house was burned down, her medals were melted or shot away. “There are so many athletes who have lost houses and apartments, and young fellow coaches have been killed in the war. Aleksey Kolokoltsev, for example, has won several bronze medals and is now fighting in Bakhmut.”
Criticism also from the Minister of Sport
The Ukrainian Minister for Sports and Youth, Vadym Hutsait, also criticized the IOC’s move to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in international competitions under a neutral flag again. Even if only under certain conditions: No teams, only individual athletes – and these only without any connection to the Russian or Belarusian military and secret services.
“We don’t agree with that at all,” Hutsait said. “How could we? After all, we fought to get them out of sports arenas. But unfortunately, the IOC made a new recommendation that we all wanted to prevent. The President of Ukraine, all sports federations and I personally are in favor of it made strong that they should not return.”
Shortly after the IOC recommendation, the sports minister said that Ukraine’s possible next steps would be discussed and reacted to.
Klitschko: “Recommendation is nonsense”
Hutsait is also President of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee. Soccer professional Roman Sosulja criticized his attitude as too passive. The IOC’s proposal was emerging and it had long been clear that it would come. The fact that the decision has not yet been finally made is not a success, he wrote on Facebook.
The multiple Ukrainian heavyweight boxing champion, Volodymyr Klitschko, also expressed his displeasure on Twitter. Klitschko accused IOC President Thomas Bach of serving “Russia’s interests”. The recommendation sullies the Olympic spirit and, like this war, is just nonsense.
Many athletes already killed in the war
Kukhinov also reminded that the Russian war of aggression made it difficult for Ukraine to take part in international competitions, as many had been killed.
There are young athletes who died in Russian air raids. Our coaches have been killed and there are athletes who have volunteered for the army. We don’t even know right now how many athletes and coaches from all disciplines were killed in the war.
Meanwhile, weightlifter Naumova dreams of big competitions like the Olympics. She’s gotten better, she says. “Maybe if I try really hard. I can try because I have the opportunity to train. It may take a while but I’m making progress.”
Ukraine criticizes IOC recommendation
Andrea Beer, ARD Kiev, March 29, 2023 1:36 p.m