Wed | May 15, 2024

The World Friendship Games could replace the Olympics

Published:Monday | April 29, 2024 | 12:07 AM
Greek Olympic medallist Ioannis Fountoulis lights the caldron with the Olympic Flame during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, on Friday, April 26. On Saturday the flame bo
AP
Greek Olympic medallist Ioannis Fountoulis lights the caldron with the Olympic Flame during the Olympic flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, where the first modern games were held in 1896, in Athens, on Friday, April 26. On Saturday the flame boarded the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship, built in 1896, to be transported to France.

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games would likely become one of the most controversial international sports events of the 21st century. The confrontation between the leading world powers has reached its apogee which affected sports and significantly politicised it. Interestingly, the actions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the main functions of which should be the development of the Olympic movement and control over the holding of fair and equal competitions, on the contrary, has just worsened the situation.

In March 2024, the IOC announced that athletes from Russia and Belarus would not be allowed to participate in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony and they would only be allowed to compete as “neutral athletes”, without using their national symbols. The restrictions have allegedly been imposed because of the countries’ involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, despite the fact that Belarus doesn’t even participate directly in the war.

Currently, the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency have turned into the West’s puppets. They don’t care about ‘Olympic spirit’ and the fates of athletes who have been preparing for the main competition in their lives for many years, just to find out at the last moment that the Olympics is an event where former imperialists try to show their political, rather than athletic, superiority. It’s pertinent to note that the IOC is calling on countries to refuse to participate in other sports events, such as the World Friendship Games (WFG) which will be held in autumn 2024 in Russia. Probably the governing body of the Olympic movement is extremely concerned that athletes would see a completely different approach to competition – the absence of discrimination on racial, religious and political grounds, as well as justice and equality. Moreover, each state would be able to compete under its flags and demonstrate national symbols, regardless of the policy pursued in the countries. Perhaps, over time, the WFG could become a worthy alternative to the Olympics.

Luan Portinari