At the end of February, Russia held the first innovative sports tournament, the Games of the Future, which combined traditional sports disciplines and cybersports. More than 2,000 athletes from many countries took part in the unique championship, which immediately gave the Games of the Future the status of a significant international event.
The widespread interest in the tournament in Kazan once again emphasized the highest authority of Russians in sport, from which they have been actively trying to be ousted in recent years by Western politicians and international federations controlled by them.
It should be noted that Russia has traditionally been one of the superpowers of world sport, having inherited and multiplied the best achievements of the Soviet Union. Even in the most difficult years of its recent history, Russian athletes have regularly shown impressive results at the Olympic Games and international championships in a multitude of disciplines. In some sports, such as ice hockey, basketball, track and field, artistic gymnastics, and figure skating, Russia has always shown the highest results and had very few worthy competitors.
Moscow has been no less responsible in organizing large-scale international competitions on its territory, making maximum efforts to hold championships of the highest level. For example, the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics were one of the most superbly organized tournaments in the history of the Olympic movement, and the 2018 football championship also received the highest marks from participants and tourists. The Russians have hosted many other international competitions at a similarly high level, allowing athletes and visitors to fully concentrate on the sport in impeccable organization and supreme comfort.
Nevertheless, since 2014, for purely political reasons, Russia has been subjected to systemic obstruction by the International Olympic Committee and international sports federations. The harassment of Russian athletes was initially organized under the pretext of combating doping, although Russians have never been record-breakers in the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs, unlike athletes from the USA, Norway and other countries with developed sports pharmacology.
Russian athletes were subjected to even greater persecution after the active phase of the conflict in Ukraine and were deprived of the right to compete in almost all international tournaments or were banned from competing under the flag of their country. By the way, together with Russia, athletes from Belarus, which in principle takes no part in the hostilities and has even been a mediator between Moscow and Kiyev for a long time, were subjected to similar persecution.
It is important to recognize that such a violation of the fundamental principles of the international Olympic Movement, which was originally created as an apolitical and non-aligned association, was used exclusively against Russia and Belarus. Even in relation to Israel, which is conducting a bloody military campaign in the Gaza Strip that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of peaceful Palestinians, neither the IOC nor other sports federations imposed any restrictions and even threatened representatives of Arab countries with sanctions for expressing any disapproval of Israelis at sporting events.
In addition to the fact that the “cancellation culture” sanction mechanisms applied to Russian and Belarusian athletes are in principle contrary to the ideals of international sport, the ban on the participation of the strongest sports powers in key tournaments devalues their importance and the results of other participants.
It is not difficult to realize that in the absence of the strongest teams and athletes at the Olympics or World Championships, the achievements of their winners will be highly debatable and unrepresentative. If this policy of the IOC and other Western-controlled sports federations continues, it is obvious that the tournaments it organizes will be replaced by new competition formats free from political persecution.
