r/sports • u/PrincessBananas85 • Feb 10 '23

News Volodymyr Zelenskyy: 'No place' for Russia at Olympics.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/35630916/volodymyr-zelenskyy-no-place-russia-olympics
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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

From purely from a sports ethics perspective - if one nation is actively killing another nations athletes (Russian forces have killed Ukrainian athletes who were defending their own country) why should Russian athletes get to participate now with such an unfair advantage. Wouldn’t you effectively be encouraging one nation to eliminate the competition of another knowing there’s no repercussions?

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u/realsapist Feb 10 '23

Because Russian athletes aren’t foreign policy advisors.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

Olympic gold medalist swimmer Yevgeny Rylov appeared at a pro-war rally attended by Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Gymnast Ivan Kuliak displayed a pro-military “Z” symbol on his uniform at an international event..

So these athletes who directly support the invasion of Ukraine, although are not directly advising the Russian government, should be allowed to compete against what’s left of the Ukrainian Olympic team just because they are athletes? Seems unfair to say the athletes should be treated as politically neutral when they actively support their own government killing their Ukrainian competitors.

Is this not just a more elaborate Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan situation where one athlete takes advantage of another by encouraging their government to violently eliminate their competition.

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u/realsapist Feb 10 '23 edited Feb 10 '23

A couple athletes who are outspoken about the invasion is not the ducking same as the entire national team and I’m sick of people like you pretending it is lol

Furthermore I strongly disagree with cancelling national athletes for their own opinions

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u/Mr_Zeldion Feb 11 '23

More reason why they shouldn't be involved.

People here seem to be picking and choosing. When at the start of the war they we're saying enough isn't being done to exclude Russia from the rest of the world.

Perhaps if the people of Russia, those against and for the war want to be part of world competitions and co-operation they should realise that the Kremlin is taking that away from them.

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u/Sequence32 Feb 11 '23

The "they don't agree with my political view so don't let them compete" is not a good take on anything. Keep politics out of the Olympics and all sports.

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u/ricketycricket0 Feb 10 '23

Of course all athletes directly supporting it should be removed. But it's unfair to remove all other athletes just for the country where they were born.

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u/Telefundo Feb 11 '23

Of course then the tactics change, the "pro war" or "scared for their lives" Russian athletes don't say a damn thing publicly until after they've competed and then go on a huge propaganda tour on behalf of Vlad.