Sanctions against Russia do not only apply to politicians or businessmen linked to the regime, but also to athletes. Like other countries, the Czech government also banned their participation as individuals and teams in competitions and matches this June.
The management of the WTA women’s tennis tournament, which will take place next week in Prague in Stromovka, has to deal with the participation of female tennis players from Russia and Belarus. Yevgenija Rodinova of Russia and Alyaksandra Sasnovichova of Belarus signed up for the tournament. “The ban is valid. I don’t know how it is, but someone will have to investigate,” said Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský (Pirates).
Both players can be saved by the fact that the government resolution explicitly refers to the representatives of Russia and Belarus. However, female tennis players play under a neutral name at the tournament. “According to our information, the Russian and Belarusian participants will have to sign a statement that they are not representing their country and that they are here as independent athletes,” explained the press spokesman of the National Sports Agency, Jakub Večerka.
Hašek: If you advertise something, you escalate it
According to the police, the ban on athletes representing Russia and Belarus at the women’s tennis tournament will be observed. It will monitor the sporting event, in case of violation of the conditions of the granted visa, the participants will not be allowed to enter the Czech territory, or the visa will be canceled for a short time.
“They are citizens of their country. (…) Any citizen always represents his country. It doesn’t matter if I’m wearing that country’s emblem or if they play my anthem,” Hašek remarked. “So they may not have a name there, where they are from, whether from Belarus or Russia. But they are still citizens and, unfortunately, they represent the country, they advertise the actions of their country,” he said, emphasizing that Russia is waging an imperial war and committing war crimes related to it.
“If you advertise something, of course you escalate it,” he added. If, according to Hašek, the Czech Republic cares about Ukrainian and Russian lives, then Rodinová and Sasnovičová are not allowed to play in the tournament. “If we let Russian and Belarusian tennis players play here, a lot of people will die because of it,” he said.
At the same time, Hašek added that he does not encourage Czech tennis players not to play against opponents from Russia or Belarus. “I know they would just lose money and their performances,” he says, explaining that he criticizes the WTA and the politicians who set the rules. Similarly, Hašek has been criticizing, for example, the management of the overseas hockey NHL for a long time.
For example, Russian tennis player Darya Kasatkinová publicly criticizes Russian aggression in Ukraine and says that she is considering changing her citizenship. “If I condemn the war, I must clearly define that I condemn the imperialist Russian war for the purpose of gaining the territory of another country, I criticize the crimes – that’s the first thing. And the second thing is that, according to that, the athlete must regularly appear in public,” commented Hašek. According to him, it is not enough to just sign a statement.
If Kasatkinová defines it this way and performs accordingly, she could play in tournaments, Hašek thinks. According to him, however, rules need to be set.
Starting the Olympics without condemning the invasion is inadmissible, says Žantovský
As for the Olympic Games in Paris, roughly a year before their start, it is still not clear whether neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete in them. The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, does not intend to set a deadline by which a decision must be made. He said this after sending official invitations, which neither Russia nor Belarus received.
A group of independent experts of the Czech Olympic Committee (ČOV) suggested that Russian and Belarusian athletes sign an oath condemning their countries’ aggression in Ukraine before they start at the Olympics under a neutral flag.
“The recommendation we gave to the WWTP is definitive from our side. (…) We consider the participation of Russia and Belarus as states to be inadmissible, we consider the participation of teams representing Russia or Belarus to be inadmissible, we consider the participation of athletes who belong to the army or security forces to be inadmissible,” said expert group coordinator Michael Žantovský.
Athletes supporting the war in Ukraine would be an advertisement for the regime of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, just as athletes who sign a statement condemning the war would be an advertisement against an aggressive war, Žantovský thinks. “For that he deserves to start and for that he deserves recognition,” he added.
Disqualified Ukrainian fencer
Under the neutral flag, Russian and Belarusian fencers can compete at the World Championships in Milan. There was an incident there on Thursday between the Ukrainian representative Olga Charlanova and the Russian fencer Anna Smirnova. Charlanová refused to shake her hand after her win in the first round, for which she was disqualified for breaking the rules. According to the rules, the fencers must shake hands after announcing the result of the match.
According to Žantovský, the disqualification of Charlanová contradicts the basic principles of fair play. “Any jury would have to take into account the personal feelings of the Ukrainian fencer, her human dignity and the reasons why she refused to shake hands with her Russian opponent in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine,” he noted.
The Ukrainian Fencing Union intends to file a protest. “The referee didn’t black card her straight away or disqualify her outright. All this meanness started later. We will strive for the cancellation of this verdict, because a disqualification would make it impossible for Olga to start here in the team competition,” said the president of the union Mychajlo Illjašev in a television interview.
The representative of the Ukrainian presidential office, Mykhaylo Podolyak, drew attention to the fact that the Russian swordsman had posed in a military ear hat in the past. “As you can see, he openly admires the Russian army, which is killing Ukrainians and destroying our cities,” commented Podoljak.
The International Fencing Federation FIE has not yet commented on the incident.
2023-07-27 19:58:16
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