Zelensky’s chief of staff urges banning Russian athletes from the Olympics, drawing comparison to Berlin 1936
A torchbearer walks through the streets on his way to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, on August 1, 1936. (Photo: Allsport Hulton/File)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff has urged the International Olympic Committee to ban Russian athletes from participating in the 2024 Games in Paris, citing the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
“Those 1936 Games are a stain on the history of the International Olympic Committee (IOC),” said Andriy Yermak in an opinion piece for The Athletic.
“The Nazi regime’s open discrimination against Jews and other ‘non-Aryans’ was already common knowledge. But it did not lead to the cancellation of the Games. Nor did it lead to any high-profile political scandal.”
The IOC declared last month that while it would ban Russian and Belarusian officials, flags, anthems and colors, “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport.”
“Therefore, a pathway for athletes’ participation in competition under strict conditions should be further explored,” the IOC stated.
Yermak said the idea of athletes participating under a neutral banner “is almost irrelevant.”
“Everybody already knows who they are and where they come from. In 2014, the whole world also knew who the Russian special forces were when they posed as residents of Donbas and Crimea during their illegal annexation,” he wrote.
“For justice to work, both its letter and its spirit must be taken into account. To pervert the essence of justice, it is enough to neglect the spirit, sticking to the letter. And that is exactly what the status of “neutrality” intends. for athletes from the aggressor states. Any country that supports the idea is also supporting an injustice.”