RUSSIA OUT OF SPORTING EVENTS
You are from nowhere. The flag and anthem of your country are not welcomed in the biggest sporting events in the world within the next four years. This is the message that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sends to Russian athletes about their participation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Paralympics, and FIFA 2020 World Cup in Qatar.
Russia is banned from participating in sporting events in the next four years due to major doping scandals in December 2019 according to BBC. However, WADA permits Russian athletes to participate in sporting events under a neutral flag and without a national anthem. An exception to this decision is the UEFA EURO 2020, where the Russian football team is allowed to participate as a nation. EURO 2020 is not a global sporting event but a continental one so WADA permits Russia to attend. However, in case the team qualifies to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, the Russian squad could participate as a team not presenting the Russian nation.
My opinion is that being banned from an event as an athlete is acceptable following WADA rules. If the rules do not permit you to participate under certain circumstances-like using doping substances, there are no relevant objections. In those cases, athletes should be banned from participating.
Although, I think that in this particular case involving Russia, WADA does not seem to care about banning athletes with positive doping results to stop unfair advantages. The agency is focused on the punishment of the country by denationalizing its athletes. Russian athletes are not allowed to get on the sports scene walking with pride in the music of their national anthem, carrying their flag. Unlike their competitors from other countries who have the opportunity to sing their national anthem, carry their flag with pride, and thus represent their origin and culture. This approach makes me think that WADA is violating Russian athletes’ rights to be publicly proud of their origin, family, culture. If we compare Russian athletes to their competitors, I think Russians have a moral disadvantage that could also impact their sporting performance.
Imagine going out in front of the crowd with your competitor. Before the competition in a certain sport starts you can hear the national anthem of your competitor’s country played on the stadium’s sound facilities. Citizens of that particular country sing with pride along with your competitor. He is the most important thing for those several minutes because he is representing the country. At the end of the anthem, you can hear cheering and applause for the person you compete against. This cheering is from people defending the pride of their nation by showing support to the athlete who represents it. After the last applauses, it is your turn to stay in the spotlight, sing with pride, and wave the flag. You are not given that opportunity. And so the competition begins. Does your competitor have more confidence that could turn into his advantage? I think so.
In the athletes’ point of view, they can still go to the Olympics and represent themselves as athletes, their clubs in which they train, and their coaches. But I think that it is still going to damage their self-esteem as they will not be part of the sports society representing its nation. Unlike their competitors.
According to Wikipedia, Russian athletes have won a total of 426 medals in all the Summer Olympics in which they have participated. The number of gold medals is 148. Most of them are in Wrestling (30), Gymnastics (22), and Athletics (20). Russians have also won 126 silver medals and 152 bronze medals.
I find it ironic that in its goal to maintain the fairness of the sport, WADA makes it unfair by deciding not to permit athletes’ participation if they are representing Russia. However, WADA’s official decision in 2019 on the organization’s website could be found reasonable because the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSSADA) have deliberately send manipulated laboratory result to WADA. This is a violation of sport’s fair play by the Russian Federation. RUSSADA has had multiple chances of fixing their mess and they have refused to take that opportunity. In a 2019 article in The Guardian, WADA’s Chief Executive Officer Sir Craig Reedie says that Russian have been violating clean sports “for too long.”
Nevertheless, my personal opinion is that WADA should not make Russian athletes participate in sporting events with no flag or anthem. They should permit them to do so by representing Russia if their doping results are negative.
According to The Guardian in 2019, Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev claims that this decision is an “anti-Russian hysteria.” WADA’s decision is focused on political conflicts outside the sport’s industry. Russian president, Vladimir Putin also claims that the punishment cannot be mutual and affect the whole country.
In an article by The Guardian, we can see that his comments on the decision are that it has “nothing to do with the interest in sport and the Olympic movement.”
Institutions in sports should not have political motives. Athletes should be banned, not countries.
I think that the ultimate solution to the problem is testing Russian athletes from another outside anti-doping institution. In case of a negative result, athletes should have the right to compete for their country and represent their national symbols. My opinion is that this problem between WADA and RUSSADA should be solved between the two anti-doping agencies.
Victor Velev is a student at the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG). Victor is majoring in Journalism and Mass Communication and loves writing. The story is written because the author is interested in sporting events around the world.
