Exactly two years until the start of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. In honor of this, the organizers of the Games, together with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), held a press conference where they announced the slogan of the upcoming competitions.
The motto of the Paris Olympics will be “Games Wide Open”.
Honored coach of Russia in handball, trainer of 2016 Olympic champion Evgeny Trefilov sharply criticized the new slogan.
“It has already been said and negotiated that we will not be admitted to the Olympics.
This slogan is already like a mockery and mild insanity. This much. The jokes are over. They’re starting to go crazy.
But if they scare you, you have to answer. I cannot say otherwise,” Trefilov said in a conversation with RIA Novosti.
It is important to note that at the moment the IOC has not made a decision about the future of the Russian team at the 2024 Olympics. Stanislav Pozdnyakov, head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), said today that his organization remains registered with the IOC and is preparing for a trip to the French capital.
“Despite all the circumstances, the ROC is a full member of the Olympic movement. “We continue to prepare for the Games, we also work to ensure our athletes’ proficiency and equal presence at the Olympic Village and its facilities, their participation in events during the Games,” Pozdnyakov said on his Telegram channel.
However, not everyone expresses such optimism. Honored coach of the USSR in figure skating Tatyana Tarasova, commenting on the news about the motto of the Olympic Games-2024, said that the upcoming Olympic Games will be held without the participation of Russian athletes.
“What a stupid slogan. But we do not care what the slogan is. We do not agree there. I think there is no luck, ”Tarasova said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
State Duma deputy and 2006 Olympic champion in speed skating Svetlana Zhurova, in an interview with a socialbites.ca correspondent, said that the slogan of the upcoming Olympics is positive and not hostile towards Russia.
“How would we perceive this slogan if it were not for all the events that are happening now? Wonderful. Indeed, the Games are for everyone, all athletes should have the opportunity to participate in them. No one should have any restrictions for national or political reasons.
In essence, the slogan is absolutely true. It is universal, humanistic, related to sports. It does not carry any additional load. However, it would be a little cynical and inconsistent for us not to allow the Russians to participate in the Games. It turns out, then, that the Games are not for everyone, but for those who think they should be allowed.
It is clear that the Russians look at this slogan from their own perspective, but those who put it forward did not attribute any other meaning to it. We already see a bad faith in him. There is everything, but we are, and we are not all, ”he said.
According to him, at the moment it is impossible to predict the future of Russian athletes at the 2024 Games.
“So far, we’re only talking hypothetically, because no one knows yet what it’s going to be like in two years.
The IOC is working in every possible way to suppress private opinions that there will be no Russians at the Olympics in Paris. They will wait for the resolution of the situation in Ukraine, the peace talks and the outcome.
Therefore, no one will say anymore whether our athletes will be at the Games or not. They will not be allowed under their own flag, in neutral status, or at all. Now not a single person will say this, ”Zhurova concluded.
The Russian team was not accepted into the last three Olympics in the normal format. In 2018, in Pyeongchang, the country’s honor was defended by Olympic Athletes (OAR) from Russia. Russia hosted the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Beijing Games impartially due to the Lausanne Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) fraud case with doping samples published in 2019.
Four-time Olympic champion Alexander Tikhonov said in an interview with a socialbites.ca correspondent that for Russia to fully return to world sports, it must completely solve the doping problem.
“I don’t think everything will last. Everything is back to normal. It is important now to make up for what has been lost lately – we are not represented in international federations. Tell me the name of at least one of our national federations, which is now respected in the world? We need to get our rights back.
Our tennis player won Wimbledon for Kazakhstan (Elena Rybakina, – approx. “socialbites.ca”). Then she was accused of changing her sports citizenship on television. She sat and cried. So Shamil Tarpishchev (president of the Russian Tennis Federation) should have thought about it earlier. There are many such examples, both in biathlon and in athletics.
We have formed a negative attitude towards ourselves. How many doping scandals have we had? The games are open to everyone – great, we can hope that we will return to the sports family, there is time. But they will show us again. And they will present it fairly. And this is not a political order. What do you want if there are more than 30 cases of doping in biathlon? And we’re not looking for a reason. And the reason is in ourselves, ”Tikhonov concluded.
Source: Gazeta
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