Russia’s Olympic defeat

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has reduced his country to a nonentity in sports.

Gold medallist Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh celebrates with the Ukrainian flag after competing in the women's high jump final of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Picture: AFP

The Paris Olympics have been a pleasure to watch, but what has been particularly satisfying is what one isn’t seeing: Russia.

After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the International Olympic Committee effectively banned Russia from competing in Paris.

Before addressing the particulars and longer-term implications, let’s get one thing straight: Russia’s disappearance from the most popular global event should be seen as a humiliating defeat for one person, Vladimir Putin.

Putin chose to invade Ukraine, a sovereign nation, and now for two weeks his own has been reduced to a nonentity. Russia’s invisibility across the spectrum of Olympic sports is a repudiation of its leader.

Rather than a total ban – as urged by Ukraine and other European nations, such as Sweden – the IOC devised a system that let some Russians compete as “neutral” individuals. The limits also applied to athletes from Belarus, Russia’s ally against Ukraine.

In total, 15 Russian and 17 Belarusian athletes qualified. By contrast, more than 300 Russians competed in Tokyo’s Olympics, held in 2021 because of Covid.

The IOC’s “neutral athlete” qualification system is explicit in its links to the Ukraine war.

Russians were banned from team sports. Individual athletes “who actively support the war” couldn’t qualify. Athletes “contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies” weren’t eligible. No Russian government official could be accredited to the Games. Russia’s anthem, flag and colours were eliminated.

The IOC “reaffirmed again the steadfast commitment of the entire Olympic Movement to help Ukrainian athletes in every way possible”.

Gold medallist Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh celebrates on the podium during the victory ceremony for the women's high jump athletics event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Picture: AFP

Ukraine’s athletes have delivered, winning two gold, two silver and three bronze medals. Gold-medallist high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh dedicated her win to “our defenders” in Ukraine.

Astute viewers likely have noticed another political story running under the radar: Hong Kong has 35 athletes in the Games and several have won medals. One may wonder: How can the island be in the Olympics?

Since the massive, extraordinarily brave Hong Kong street protests in opposition to China’s crackdown on the territory in 2019-20, the communist mainland has been squeezing what little remains of Hong Kong’s independence. The island’s most well-known pro-democracy dissident, publisher Jimmy Lai, is being held in solitary confinement as he awaits trial on the specious charge of conspiring with a foreign power.

So it was initially jarring to see athletes described as representing Hong Kong. The short answer is that the island still maintains a national Olympic committee, as it has since 1952, and thus qualifies to compete not as China but as what the world still thinks of as Hong Kong.

The IOC’s decision to eliminate Putin’s Russia from the Paris Games raises a question: What would happen if, or when, China invades Taiwan?

Would the IOC impose similar restrictions on China’s presence in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles? Would president Donald Trump or Kamala Harris call for a ban?

Notwithstanding disputes over Taiwan’s legal status, the island has governed itself since the Republic of China relocated there in 1949. Taiwan holds free elections. China doesn’t.

There is little chance the IOC would impose bans on China’s athletes, and the double standard at least demonstrates the degree to which Russia under Putin is becoming an also-ran vassal of China.

Realists will note that Russia’s Olympic humiliation hasn’t stopped Putin from shelling Ukraine, taking foreign hostages or ordering political assassinations.

Still, don’t underestimate the importance for Putin and China’s Xi Jinping of using their athletes’ performance as propaganda for the superiority of their total-control systems, as Adolf Hitler did with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Putin’s and Xi’s need to amass propaganda wins in sports raises a neuralgic Olympic issue for me: doping. After all the hard training, I can’t imagine anything worse than losing to a performance-enhancing drug.

Putin didn’t have to invade Ukraine to get kicked out of the Olympics. In 2015 Russian athletes were banned from track-and-field competition after the World Anti-Doping Agency released a devastating report of a vast state-sponsored system of using illicit drugs. The document challenged Russia’s results from the 2012 London Olympics.

Meanwhile, more than 20 of China’s swimmers have been named in reports for failing doping tests in 2021. The antidoping agency accepted China’s explanation of tainted food.

As the Paris Olympics opened, US swimmer Katie Ledecky said, “I hope everyone here is going to be competing clean this week.”

After the Chinese men won the 4x100 medley relay last week, Britain’s star swimmer Adam Peaty said, “There’s no point in winning if you don’t win it fair.”

US swimming great Michael Phelps said last week, “If you test positive, you should never be allowed to come back and compete again.” He called it “one and done”.

Outside the Olympics, one and done isn’t possible in the global competition of states. But the past two weeks have provided clarity on the difference between pariahs and real winners.

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