Monthly Archives: February 2023

Reality Check: Russia Gone from Olympics. Maybe Forever

By Ed Hula

The flag of Russia may never again wave over an Olympic Games.

It’s already been six years since the Russian flag was banned at the 2016 games in Rio De Janeiro over a massive state-run doping scheme involving Russian winter and summer sport athletes.

Now the prospect of a longer-term rupture appears to grow as the Russian attack against Ukraine persists into a second year.  Paris 2024 will likely be the third consecutive Summer Games without a recognized team from Russia: no flag, and no anthems for gold medalists.  Athletes from Russia may compete as neutrals, though how they will be chosen is still not known.

Even if the Russian offensive ended overnight, would there be time enough for Moscow to make amends?  Probably not. The quest for accountability from Ukraine and its allies will put demands on Russia that will take decades to satisfy.

Calculating the scale and cost of reparations could be the most complicated number-crunching of the 21^st Century. Trillions are likely needed. Charges of war crimes and subsequent trials, like rebuilding, will go on for years as well, ongoing reminders of the agonies suffered.

Of the many casualties of the unprovoked war, the Olympics are on this grim list. 

In February, ministers from 30 European nations signaled to the IOC that some of them could sit out Paris 2024 rather than make concessions about Russian participation.  Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leads the way in rejecting IOC attempts to include any Russians in the upcoming Games. Ukraine will stay home from Paris, he warns.

The IOC and President Thomas Bach will need all the sports diplomacy they can muster over the next year. Keeping a lid on boycott threats by governments, athletes or sports federations will be the IOC’s big worry. A lot will depend on the state of play next February, especially if the shooting persists.

 Look for the U.S. to be a hotspot if members of Congress rebuff IOC decisions regarding Russia, pressing the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to join Ukraine in a possible boycott.

Imagine the chaos should Russian allies also threaten their own boycott to show solidarity with the Kremlin.

Another key test for the IOC comes late this year when the U.N. would customarily endorse an Olympic Truce to be observed during the time of the 2024 Games.  Noble as it is, the notion of an Olympic Truce has been made laughable by Russia as well.  As the Beijing Winter Olympics came to an end last year, Russia — one of 190 member nations to back the Olympic Truce — launched its latest invasion of Ukraine.

That makes Russia a habitual Olympic Truce violator, if there can be such a thing. At the end of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Russian President Vladimir Putin shamelessly unleashed his forces to seize the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. So far there’s no word yet from IOC headquarters in Lausanne of any alternate strategy to deploy in the cause of the Olympic Truce. It is customarily advanced by the host nation of the upcoming Games, in this case France.

That in itself is reassuring for those who value the symbolism of the diplomatic gesture. French President Emmanuel Macron is at the tip of Europe’s resistance to the Russian onslaught. He would be an enthusiastic campaigner for the truce. At the same time, he is one for whom the irony of Russia’s repeat disregard of the truce will not be lost.

Whether Putin has the nerve to instruct his diplomats to add Russia as a signatory to a 2024 Olympic Truce remains to be seen.

 As evidenced by 2014 and 2022, how surprising would it be for Putin to endorse a cease fire during the Paris Olympics? As he did back then, what plans will Putin hide behind the curtain of Russian support for a truce?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Fool me three times?

Macron and other voices such as the IOC president will have to answer that question when the General Assembly convenes in September.

This grim scenario doesn’t bode well for Russia’s place in the Paris Olympics or any other. Italy follows with Winter Games in 2026, likely with Russia still in the sin bin regardless. Then there’s Los Angeles in 2028, where the absence of Russia seems predestined by history.

The last time LA hosted the Olympics in 1984, 13 Eastern bloc nations joined what was then the USSR in a boycott in retaliation for the US-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. If the parade of athletes at SoFi Stadium in 2028 is minus Russia, the games will be the fourth Summer Games without an official delegation from Russia.

Whether from a boycott or continued IOC sanctions, Russia’s Olympic exile, like the war it has wrought in Ukraine, appears to have no end. An end in Russia’s favor with a subjugated Ukraine will certainly be greeted with dismay around the world. Reaction from the IOC could bring a permanent ban for the Russian Federation from the celebration of peace and sport. Understandably frustrated, the IOC will leave reconciliation to future generations.

The Hula Report: Former IOC Member Phil Coles, the Bondi Battler

Phil Coles can be remembered for his battle against the 1980 boycott of Moscow, Or as a souce of scandal on the eve of the Sydney Olympics.

Former IOC member Phil Coles was 91 when he died January 29 in Sydney after what’s reported as a short illness. His IOC tenure ran from 1982 to 2011, during which he played a key role in Australian Olympic bids from Brisbane for 1992 and Sydney, successful in 1993 for the 2000 Games. Coles was one of two Australian IOC members at the time. His senior was Kevan Gosper, a Melburnian who joined the IOC in 1977 and retired a decade ago.

By profession Coles was a plumber. But canoeing was his passion in sport. He was 29 when he competed at the Rome Olympics. In 1964 he captained the Australian team for Tokyo and ended his Olympic career at the 1968 Games in Mexico City.

Coles became involved with the administration of the sport in Australia and joined the staff of the Australian Olympic Federation, now the AOC. He worked alongside chairman David McKenzie, a charismatic leader who had been an IOC member since 1977. Coles would recall how he would take McKenzie to and from the airport with McKenzie reccounting the highlights of the trip during the journey.

McKenzie did not return after one such trip in 1981. He was found dead in a spa in Hawaii, age 45. While the circumstances were mysterious and suspicious, no criminal charges emerged. Coles was part of the delegation that flew to Hawaii for the repatriation.

Newly elected IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch had asked Australian officials to consider candidates who could succeed McKenzie. Samaranch is said to have explained that he would like to interview the proposed candidates when he makes a stop in Australia in the future. Historian Harry Gordon recalls that Samaranch was informed that of three candidates only one needed to be interviewed, should he wish to bother. Kevan Gosper told the IOC leader Phil Coles was the choice for Australia. Coles was elected at the 1982 Session in Rome.

Coles became ensnared in the Salt Lake City Olympic bid scandal that erupted in late 1998. He was found to have accepted luxury ski accomodations in Utah during the Salt Lake City bid for the 2002 Winter Games. He was suspended from IOC voting and commission assignments for two years, one of 24 members to face ethics charges over the scandal.

The IOC penalties in 1999 also forced Coles to give up his seat on the board of the Sydney Olympics, just as the home stretch to the Games arrived. He was given perfuntory attention, a cold shoulder for the Olympics he helped secure for his home town. He was subject to searing headlines, bad press.

Coles could be bitter about the experience years later at the same time sanguine.

“There’s nothing more to say,” is how Coles had put it to this reporter.

Coles is survived by spouse Patricia. The lived in Bondi, the Sydney suburb famed for its beach. Coles swam frequently. After caneoing, Coles took up surf lifesaving at Bondi. He was a booster of the sport to join the Olympic program. Coles also lent his support to triathlon

Phil Coles is also remembered in Australia for leading the effort to reject a boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Coles led the Australian team into the opening ceremony. IOC President Thomas Bach said this week that Coles’ stand against the boycott was a singular achievment.

“It made him proud for the rest of his life to have led these athletes into the Olympic Stadium.

“His love for the Olympic Games was at the centre of his life,” said Bach.

“Personally, I have lost a wonderful friend with whom I shared so many moments of our Olympic lives.

“I will never forget this heartwarming friendliness and his sense of humour,” says Bach in a statement.

Australian Olympic Committee president Ian Chesterman decribed Coles contribution to Australian sport as “immense”.

“Phil’s passing, after a lifetime in sport, is a sad day for the Olympic movement and for many involved in the wider sports community in Australia,” Chesterman said.