RUSSIAN SPORTS BOYCOTTS?

 

RUSSIAN SPORTS BOYCOTTS?

So Chinese dictator Xi Jinping asked Russian dictator Vladmir Putin to hold off on invading Ukraine until after Beijing’s Winter Olympics. Putin generously postponed the bloodshed to accommodate his Communist buddy’s request.

Interestingly, Russian tanks subsequently got bogged down in March mud that was frozen in February.

Xi owes Vlad bigtime on this one.

Also interestingly, in 2014 Russia waited until after the February conclusion of its 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics before invading and taking Crimea away from Ukraine. What’s past is prologue.

In the wake of Russia’s horrendously bloody 2022 Ukrainian invasion, sanctions and boycotts of all sorts were imposed on Moscow. These will cause much pain. Time will tell how effective they’ll be. But sanctions don’t impact dictators as much as many wish. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein laughed off sanctions that targeted his regime. Until such time as the dictators themselves actually go hungry, they’re apt to thumb their noses. At least until their natives get very restless.

So what about the numerous Russian sports sanctions now in place? Consider the decision of FIFA and UEFA to suspend Russian national and club soccer teams from all international competition “until further notice.” Ouch! Or as Putin might say, Ой! (Oy!)

Those favoring such sanctions ask how we can possibly conduct business as usual with such countries. Germany’s 1936 “Nazi” Olympic example is often cited as a cautionary tale, the lesson from which being that we should not bestow legitimacy upon bestial regimes.

Those 1936 Berlin Olympics were cited by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 when he declared a boycott of Moscow’s Summer Olympics. A Soviet invasion of Afghanistan made business as usual impossible.

(Although 1980’s Lake Placid Winter Games did take place that February, the highlight of which was the American ice hockey win over the Soviets. “Do you believe in miracles? YES!")

While athletes who’d trained and chased Olympic dreams for years were embittered by Carter’s 1980 decision, most folks understood and supported his actions. Over 60 other nations joined the boycott. But there were consequences, such as Soviet payback in 1984 when the Russians and their satellites boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics. The Soviets cited security concerns and American “chauvinistic sentiments” that whipped up an “anti-Soviet hysteria” in the U.S.

Sure.

The only east bloc country to buck the Soviets in 1984 was Ukraine’s neighbor Romania, whose athletes received a thunderous ovation when they marched into the L.A. Coliseum. Interestingly, the athletes from Communist China received a similarly warm American reception as they marched into their first-ever Olympic competition.

(At the time Ukraine was an unhappy member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It broke free at the end of 1991 when the USSR imploded.)

Will Russians participate in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics? Time will tell. Athletics greatly enrich the human experience while connecting cultures so the sports world is much poorer when innocent athletes can’t compete due to world politics.

While the biggest victims of Russian aggression are obviously the Ukrainians, the Russian people are also needlessly suffering in many ways—to include innocent Russian athletes. A united front by those Russian athletes would matter. But it takes a lot more courage to protest by “taking a knee” in Russia than it does in America.

Still, could high profile Russian sports heroes assert themselves and change the world?

Do you believe in miracles?

Yes.

The American Olympic ice hockey victory over the Soviet Union 

in February of 1980 was rated as the top sports story of the 20th Century.

(FanPop)