The Athletics thread

[gunnar hendershow]

Wow Bob Baffert horses keep failing drug tests. Wonder if there's any correlation.

[gunnar hendershow]

Let's see what he's going with as his defense.

 

[Lineker]

Quote

UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer will chair a summit of 30 nations on Friday to discuss Russian and Belarusian athletes' participation in next year's Olympics in Paris.

The International Olympic Committee is "exploring a pathway" for athletes from the two nations to compete as neutrals.

That move has been criticised amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky will give a live opening address to the summit's delegation via video link.

Zelensky, who visited the UK earlier this week, previously said allowing Russian athletes to compete in Paris would amount to showing that "terror is somehow acceptable".

Ukraine's sports minister Vadym Guttsait has also said the country could boycott the Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete.

A large number of other nations have already voiced their opposition to the potential inclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes.

Representatives from countries including France, Germany, Poland, the United States and Canada are expected to attend Friday's summit, where a collective statement is likely to be agreed.

Frazer, appointed culture secretary on Tuesday, said: "President Zelensky told the UK in Parliament this week of the suffering still being felt by many Ukrainians. As he did so, the IOC [International Olympic Committee] was continuing to ignore the international allies stepping up their efforts for peace and disregard how the Olympics will give Putin the perfect platform to promote Russia and legitimise his illegal war.

"We must urge the IOC to show that the Olympic values mean something. We must make clear there are consequences to this illegal invasion.

"We cannot allow Russian athletes to line up alongside Team GB and everyone else on the world stage."

In January, the IOC suggested Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete under neutral flags in Paris, saying "no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport".

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the IOC called on sports federations to exclude athletes, officials and teams from Russia and Belarus from international events.

The International Paralympic Committee banned Russia and Belarus from the Winter Paralympics in March 2022 - although athletes were allowed to compete under a neutral flag.

However in December, IOC president Thomas Bach said the governing body faced a "big dilemma" in ensuring athletes do not suffer as a result of sporting sanctions.

On Thursday, the IOC urged Ukraine to drop threats of boycotting Paris 2024, with Bach telling the country's Olympic Committee that such threats are "extremely regrettable".

In a letter to Guttsait, Bach added that threatening a boycott is "premature" because the IOC has not discussed the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals in "concrete terms yet".

The move was criticised in a joint statement from two athletics groups - Athletes for Ukraine and Global Athlete - which said the decision shows the IOC "endorses Russia's brutal war and invasion of Ukraine".

Earlier this month, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland all voiced their opposition to the inclusion of athletes from Russia and Belarus. The Olympic committees of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden then followed suit.

Poland's sport and tourism minister believes as many as 40 countries could boycott the next Olympics - thus making the whole event "pointless".

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, does not want Russia to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games while the war in Ukraine continues, in a change to her previous stance.

A number of athletes have spoken out against the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in next year's Games.

Ukrainian world heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk said any medals Russian athletes won under a neutral banner would be "medals of blood, death and tears".

His compatriot, tennis player Elina Svitolina, called for athletes from the two countries to be banned so a decision on a Games boycott would not have to be made.

Svitolina - the women's singles bronze medallist at the Tokyo Olympics - recently visited her home country for the first time since the start of the war.

"Almost all sports venues have been destroyed," she said.

"When the war is still here and people are still dying because of the Russian army, we can't go and lead normal lives like nothing is happening.

"I hope we don't have to make this decision of boycotting the Olympics."

After Russia's invasion, sanctions were announced across other sports, including football, rugby, Formula 1, cycling and swimming, while Russian and Belarusian tennis players were banned from playing at Wimbledon in 2022.

Russia was banned from the previous summer Olympics in Tokyo as part of sanctions for doping scandals, though more than 300 athletes across 30 sports were able to compete, representing the Russian Olympic Committee.

Wimbledon is yet to announce if the ban it imposed last year will continue, but Russia and Belarusian players have competed at other Grand Slams, with Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka winning January's Australian Open under a neutral flag.

World Athletics stressed that athletes from Russia and Belarus remained excluded from its events.