The instantaneity of this era means that stopping the vertigo and sitting down to reflect is not accepted.
It seems that the only thing that works is the immediate, the here and now.
That is why talking about
Paris 2024
just under 500 days after its inaugural ceremony on the Seine may sound daring.
When in reality Olympism is experiencing a crucial moment in its history.
Maximum tension, without fear of exaggerating.
And the combo has so many explosive ingredients that you won't be surprised when it all blows up.
The
International Olympic Committee
opened a Pandora's box when it announced that it analyzes that Russian and Belarusian athletes can compete without a flag or anthem in the next
Olympic Games
, as long as they have not endorsed the war.
With Ukraine in the lead, at least 40 countries have already met virtually to start talking about
a boycott
of Paris 2024 if athletes from the country that invaded and generated and generates death at every moment in Ukrainian territory participate.
And his greatest ally.
And now two very strong political-sporting moves were known to
further
heat the climate.
The World Athletics decided that the Russians and Belarusians will not compete in the tournaments under their orbit.
What is read behind this resolution is simple: if they cannot participate in competitions,
they are cut off from qualifying for the Olympic Games
, which is achieved with marks stipulated in advance.
Sebastian Coe
, the former IAAF president, wants to replace
Thomas Bach
as head of the IOC.
And he bets on toughness.
He is very clear.
The second event of vital importance was what happened during the summit that
Vladimir Putin
and
Xi Jinping
held in Moscow.
The Russian and Chinese presidents, used to not messing around, signed a joint statement praising the IOC's initiative to be on track to allow Russians and Belarusians in Paris 2024, while accusing the West of "using sport
with unseemly purposes
. "
It sounds like a joke, but it's true...
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, at the Moscow summit. AP Photo
To all this, Bach visited Essen in his native Germany and in a speech before the Rühr Political Forum he reiterated that the IOC thinks it would be discriminatory to exclude Russians and Belarusians solely because of their nationality, while also repeating that sport facilitates dialogue in times of stress.
The 200 demonstrators who protested outside had several questions to be there.
How can Ukrainian athletes train in a bombed country?
How can they take care of their mental health if they don't know the fate of their families?
How do you take seeing that some Russian athletes continue to circumvent the decisions of international federations to show their national symbols when they are prohibited in competitions?
For this simple and cruel reason, within this extreme crisis, probably
the greatest hypocrisy of the "Olympic family" and of the leaders of world powers
is to continue with the music that "sports and politics should not go hand in hand." hand".
In Germany, Bach stood in front of a lectern and said: “We know that politics rule the world, but if it decides who can participate in a competition, then sport and athletes become the tools of politics.
We must be politically neutral but not apolitical
."
To the ball...
In Moscow, Putin and Jinping did not hesitate to sign a statement that states: “Both parties
oppose the politicization of sport
and we hope to use physical culture and sports to promote solidarity and peace.
Western countries try to use sports as pressure tools.
Demonstrators who protested as Thomas Bach spoke in Essen.Photo Reuters
In times of abusive immediacy, memory does not exist and the intention is to evaporate the memory of the past and forget that the Olympic Games were the palpable scene of the intrinsic relationship between sport and politics.
As if the face of Adolf Hitler
was not remembered
when the black
Jesse Owens
shone in
Berlin 1936
.
As if in
Mexico 1968
the raised fists of the Americans
John Carlos
and
Tommie Smith
in full
“Black Power”
had not existed .
As if they forgot that
Munich 1972
went on as usual with
the massacre
of the Black September terrorist group, which assassinated eleven members of the Israeli delegation.
Or the boycotts of
Moscow in 1980
and
Los Angeles in 1984
in the Cold War.
Or the flagrant state doping carried out by Russia at the 2014 Sochi
Winter Olympics
.
Or the “white elephants” left behind in the organizing cities.
Or the suspicions, some proven, of buying votes to choose venues.
Sport must be a State policy.
No doubts.
And Argentina has that debt.
But history shows that the powers have not been left alone in that, but have used the achievements of their athletes for propaganda purposes and then, when their useful life ends, throw them into oblivion and economic and life
uncertainty
.
The IOC Executive Committee will discuss the future of the Russians and Belarusians next week.
Its conclusions may mark an explosive schism in the immediate future.
The Olympic Games are not just sports, no matter what.
There are billions at stake.
Sponsorship.
Marketing.
Infrastructure contracts.
And on top of that, a door to hell was opened for the “Olympic family”: the Shanghai Cooperation Organization wants to create a sports entity that can host a kind of “parallel Olympic Games”, obviously with another name.
On that side of the counter are Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with Iran, Afghanistan and Mongolia as observers, and informal ties to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
Meanwhile, barely 2,000 kilometers from the Eiffel Tower, bombs continue to fall and corpses continue to be buried.
And life goes on as if nothing...
HS
look too
The Russia-Ukraine war divides the waters in the WTA: Aryna Sabalenka revealed "uncomfortable situations" with other players
Ukrainian athletes, very harsh with the IOC for Russia: "He is still on the wrong side of history"