Time to kick muddah-f*cking Russia out once & for all?

[yoshi]

Does all that also mean that if Coe doesn't win the presidency, the possible return of the bid process for 2036 is basically over, because St Petersburg is back on...

Edited February 13, 2025 by yoshi

[Karenina]

On 2/13/2025 at 1:00 AM, yoshi said:

Does all that also mean that if Coe doesn't win the presidency, the possible return of the bid process for 2036 is basically over, because St Petersburg is back on...

Ehhhhhh...  Just because the IOC members are dropping hints left & right (and have been for awhile) about wanting to let Russia back in doesn't mean they're going to jump right into giving 2036 to St Petersburg.  Now, 2040...

[Rob2012]

There is now another country in this axis. Should we be asking the same question about its participation?

Edited March 6, 2025 by Rob2012

[Michelle]

On 3/6/2025 at 10:48 AM, Rob2012 said:

There is now another country in this axis. Should we be asking the same question about its participation?

the EU? lol

(not a country, but I hear you)

[StefanMUC]

How lovely from our new dear (Madam) Leader:

https://news.sky.com/story/incoming-ioc-president-to-open-talks-on-russias-potential-return-to-olympics-13333288

[Rob2012]

Russia getting all they wanted from Trump, and now from Comrade Coventry, and all they had to give up was nothing.

[Michelle]

4 hours ago, StefanMUC said:

How lovely from our new dear (Madam) Leader:

https://news.sky.com/story/incoming-ioc-president-to-open-talks-on-russias-potential-return-to-olympics-13333288

Coventry highlighting inconsistencies is correct - I’ve always thought this. Banning Russia when other countries also have dubious human rights records and issues always felt a little odd to me. 
 

tho in saying that, I agree Russia should have been banned.. along with a few others. 
 

If Russia are brought back in from the cold, there has to be certain stipulations. At least, you’d hope! 

Edited March 22, 2025 by Michelle

[Ikarus360]

Half of Africa are russian/chinese muppets at this point.

Don't act surprised. 😒

[Rob2012]

On 3/6/2025 at 10:48 AM, Rob2012 said:

There is now another country in this axis. Should we be asking the same question about its participation?

In case you missed it, today the leader of said nation has said the double-tap attack on Sunday was done by "mistake" and has blamed Zelensky for the invasion.

 

[Rob2012]

Said nation being America, not Russia, to be clear.

[Rob2012]

 

[baron-pierreIV]

18 hours ago, Rob2012 said:

 

WHAT?  What a f*cking DISASTER!!  Then I guess G7 won't happen this year in Canada?  Or they should old it MINUS USA -- and as I've held all along, invite Ukraine & Mexico instead!!  

[Bear]

Looks like the same regulations in place for Paris 2024 will remain in place for Milano Cortina 2026:

https://www.reuters.com/sports/russian-teams-remain-banned-competing-2026-winter-games-2025-05-27/

[Quaker2001]

7 hours ago, Bear said:

Looks like the same regulations in place for Paris 2024 will remain in place for Milano Cortina 2026:

https://www.reuters.com/sports/russian-teams-remain-banned-competing-2026-winter-games-2025-05-27/

There were a lot of people fearful that Kirsty Coventry was going to reverse course on Russia and that any notions of talks would lead to a bad result.  Glad that didn't happen and that she held the line.  Russia does not belong back in the Olympics so long as their war of aggression continues in Ukraine

[sebastien1214]

17 hours ago, Bear said:

Looks like the same regulations in place for Paris 2024 will remain in place for Milano Cortina 2026:

https://www.reuters.com/sports/russian-teams-remain-banned-competing-2026-winter-games-2025-05-27/

Good. Now, same thing for Israël.

[Bear]

11 minutes ago, sebastien1214 said:

Good. Now, same thing for Israël.

ive been saying, man... but unfortunately i don't think the IOC will ever do that

[sebastien1214]

49 minutes ago, Bear said:

ive been saying, man... but unfortunately i don't think the IOC will ever do that

I would have thought the same thing just a few days ago; but when I see that today even countries like Germany, which have been the most fervent defenders of Israel, are starting to adopt very harsh speeches against Israel, that even Trump is falling out with Netanyahu... honestly I think that if in several months it continues to get worse (which no one wants), given how quickly things have evolved in just a few days, the question of banning Israel from the Olympics (and from many other things: Eurovision, UEFA/FIFA...) will perhaps really be studied seriously.

[Durban Sandshark]

It is expected that the IOC will continue excluding Russia from this Winter Olympics edition coming up in Milan-Cortina. Gonna happen. The IIHF has already extended its suspension on Russia and Belarus as far as the winter team sports like ice hockey are concerned. The IIHF doesn't think it's safe to bring them back with the invasion still ongoing--sending the Olympic hockey schedule to the IOC without Russia involved at the recent IIHF Annual Congress in Stockholm. Citing and confirming by sources the Latvian sports website Sportacentrs. So France, as previously named earlier here, will participate in both Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic men's and women's ice hockey:

https://www.iihf.com/en/news/65675/russia_and_belarus_not_reincorporated_into_2025_20

https://thehockeynews.com/international/latest-news/iihf-president-luc-tardif-clarifies-position-on-russia-at-olympics

https://thehockeynews.com/international/latest-news/russia-excluded-from-2026-olympic-ice-hockey-tournaments

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/iihf-president-ioc-to-keep-russia-out-of-2026-games/ar-AA1FwxGN

Yeah it sucks that we will not see some of Russia's great hockey players like Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Borbrovsky, taking part in what could be their final Olympics to nab a gold medal, considering their ages being firmly in the 30s. Ovi craves that gold medal like his basketball-playing mom Tatiana has herself back in 1980. Does look like this Russian golden generation of stars will never come back afterwards and can't expect those immediately after them like Vladimir Tarasenko, Artemi Panarin, Nikita Kucherov, and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy in the next four years and would feel wrong by this, placed into this position beyond their control (although some would support Putin). Would've been a sight to see in taking on the other major hockey powers best-on-best like what could've been with the 4 Nations Cup. But the IOC and IIHF must stand firm. Their nation's military actions should and must be condemned:

https://thehockeynews.com/news/latest-news/will-we-never-see-ovechkin-malkin-and-other-veteran-russian-stars-in-the-olympics-again

https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2025/05/24/russia-reportedly-barred-hockey-tournaments-2026-winter-olympics-alex-ovechkins-last-active-player/

Now the ROC issues a legal challenge after the IOC confirms barring them, as reported by sports TV channel Match TV. Not gonna be successful--Good luck with that!:

https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2025/05/27/russian-olympic-committee-plans-legal-challenge-ioc-confirms-teams-barred-2026-winter-olympics/

https://matchtv.ru/olimpijskije_igry/matchtvnews_NI2208928_Otstranenije_khokkejnoj_sbornoj_juridicheski_ne_svazano_s_reshenijem_MOK_ot_2023_goda_OKR_prorabatyvajet_varianty_osparivanija_v_mezhdunarodnyh_sudah

Only four Russian figure skaters in men's and women's figure skating are approved by the ISU in qualifying for the neutral individual athletes team for next February:

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/45341792/ioc-says-russian-teams-remain-banned-26-winter-olympics

In the basketball realm, FIBA announced it'll extended discussing the status of Russia and Belarus until this August. Don't any changes there either:

https://about.fiba.basketball/en/news/fiba-central-board-approves-rescheduling-of-future-fiba-womens-basketball-world-cups-as-of-2030

[Rob2012]

 

Edited June 22, 2025 by Rob2012

[sebastien1214]

So, for 2026, it seems that nothing will change compared to Paris 2024 regarding the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes.

https://www.ski-nordique.net/jo-2026-les-athletes-russes-presents-sous-strictes-conditions.6724971-72348.html

Quote

"We're not going to rush into anything before the September and December meetings, but we'll probably move in the same direction as in Paris," IOC President Kirsty Coventry told L'Equipe.

 

[Karenina]

On 5/29/2025 at 4:11 PM, Durban Sandshark said:

Only four Russian figure skaters in men's and women's figure skating are approved by the ISU in qualifying for the neutral individual athletes team for next February:

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/45341792/ioc-says-russian-teams-remain-banned-26-winter-olympics

This is slightly misleading.  

Four Russian skaters (2 men & 2 women) and five Belarusian skaters (2 men, 1 woman, 1 ice dance team) have been approved for AIN status, however Russia & Belarus are only allowed, like every other ISU member federation, to send 1 entrant to the Olympic Qualifying Event (named Skate to Milano) being held in Beijing next month.  The entries for this event were published last week and Belarus has not entered their ice dance team (no idea why - probably injury). The #2 man & woman are substitutes & if anything happens to the #1 man & woman BEFORE this competition then they may compete.  However, if the #1 man & woman do compete in the OQE and earn a spot the substitutes cannot be swapped in for the Olympics as the spots for the AINs are nominative to the athlete rather than the member federation. 

Looking at the entry fields for the men & women, it would be surprising if the Russian man (Petr Gumennik), Russian woman (Adeliia Petrosian) and Belarusian woman (Viktoria Safonova - '22 Olympian) don't earn spots.  Safonova may be the most questionable as there aren't a lot of videos out there of her competitions the last 3 seasons, though looking at the detailed judges results, she seems to have maintained her skills at a high enough level that she SHOULD qualify.  

I'm not sure how many Russian & Belarusian skaters have been approved for speed skating or short-track.  Speed skating's qualifying competitions are 4 World Cup events in November & December.  Short Track's qualifying competitions are at 4 World Cup events in October & November  

Russia & Belarus remain banned from all other ISU competitions.  The next ISU Council meeting is in October, IIRC, so if a peace deal is to be had between now & then, they could perhaps return to competition at that time.  

[baron-pierreIV]

/\/\  I don't want them in Curling either!!! 

[Rob2012]

 

[Guilga]

Well, it came the time that they got suspended for so long, it doesn't matter anymore.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/c62q0pey051o

Quote

Russia & Belarus could use own flags as ban lifted

 

Image source,Getty Images Image caption,

The Winter Paralympics take place from 6-15 March with about 600 athletes competing in 79 medal events across six sports

ByMatt Davis

BBC Sport senior journalist

• Published
  4 hours ago

Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete under their own flag at the Paralympics and World Para Sport events after their partial suspensions by the International Paralympic Committee were lifted.

Both countries had been suspended from Paralympic competition since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Belarus is a close ally of Russia.

But their athletes competed at the Paris Paralympics as neutrals after officials decided against a full ban and instead voted for a partial suspension in 2023.

On Saturday, IPC member organisations voted to not to maintain the sanctions on the countries at the general assembly in Seoul, and Russia and Belarus will now regain the full rights and privileges of IPC membership.

While the IPC ban has been lifted, athletes will also need individual sporting federations to lift their own bans in order to be allowed to represent their countries rather than enter as neutral competitors.

So, while the IPC decision would allow Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete under their own flags at the Winter Paralympics in Milano Cortina in March 2026, the bans from the international bodies that govern the six sports on the schedule in Italy would currently prevent them from doing so.

ParalympicsGB said in a statement that it supported the IPC motion to suspend Russia.

"However, the IPC membership made the decision to reinstate NPC Russia and we have to respect the decision of the IPC membership. We continue to express our solidarity with the people of Ukraine and our friends at NPC Ukraine," it added.

Last week, the International Olympic Committee said it would allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the upcoming Winter Olympics under a neutral flag and strict conditions, as they did at the Paris Olympics.

Confirming the return of full IPC membership rights, the Paralympic sport governing body said: "The IPC will work with the two members involved [Russia and Belarus] to put practical arrangements in place for this as soon as reasonably possible."

The Russian Paralympic Committee said it was a "fair decision".

"This is an important contribution to the development of the international Paralympic movement and an example that the rights of athletes must be protected without discrimination on national and political grounds," it said.

Russian athletes are currently competing at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi as neutrals.

At the Seoul summit, IPC member organisations voted 111-55 against a motion to fully suspend Russia with 11 abstentions, and then voted 91-77 against a motion to partially suspend the country with eight abstentions.

With regards to Belarus, members voted 119-48 against motions to fully suspend the country, with nine abstentions, and 103-63 against a partial suspension, with 10 abstentions.

I would also like to point out the analysis on the same page.

Quote

Analysis - why has IPC lifted the ban?

ByDan Roan

Sports editor

This was a vote taken by the IPC's entire membership, and I am told that many countries felt that because the Paralympics is all about inclusion, it had become unfair to prevent innocent para-athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing.

Some also felt that given the countries had not competed properly as nations (ie not as neutrals) since Sochi 2014, they had been sufficiently punished.

It is also worth noting that Russia had not been suspended by the IPC because it had invaded Ukraine. Rather, it was because it had used some sports events to promote the war in Ukraine, which is against the IPC's constitution.

Now we have in the horizon Russia returning because it passed so much time since they were suspended, since after the dopping scandal of Sochi, that we will have to see their flag again. This feels like a bad omen for Ukraine, isn't it? (Not like Russia will stop in Ukraine if they get away with it, but the war has been a stalemate for so long...) And alas, if the IPC can lift their suspension, the IOC can as well.

[Bear]

15 hours ago, Guilga said:

And alas, if the IPC can lift their suspension, the IOC can as well.

The IOC and other organizations will most definitely use this as precedent to remove their own recommendations by the time LA28 comes around.

Part of me questions the timing - we're seeing an increase in calls to eject Israel from Eurovision and UEFA. In the last IOC ExBo meeting, there were questions about the standards applied by the IOC on Russia / Belarus vs those applied to Israel. Would these organizations prefer to eliminate sanctions all together just to keep Israel? I guess we'll find out soon enough...