The president of the World Athletics Association (World Athletics), two-time Olympic champion, fierce Russophobe Sebastian Coe announced his intention not to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions in any status, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Youth and Sports reported.
EADaily reported that Coe is considered one of the main candidates for the post of president of the International Olympic Committee, after German Thomas Bach leaves his post early next year.
The chairman of the subcommittee on Sports of higher achievements and sports activities of the Ukrainian Parliament Olga Saladukha met with the head of World Athletics at The Convention of the European Athletics Federation in North Macedonia, where the Briton promised not to return the athletes of Russia and Belarus either with a flag or in a neutral status.
"It is obvious that Sebastian Coe's principled position is the reason why Russia is doing everything possible to prevent his election as the new IOC president," Saladukha said.
Also, the former world champion in the triple jump complained to her interlocutor that athletes from regions that joined the Russian Federation in 2022 were attracted to Russian competitions.
Such a conscious choice of people, according to her, "requires a decisive reaction from the world athletics community." Kou promised the Ukrainian to take the issue under control.
It is appropriate to recall here that in 2015 the membership of the All-Russian Athletics Federation (VFLA) in the International Association of Athletics Federations (World Athletics) was suspended due to systematic violations by Russians of anti-doping rules.
Domestic athletes could compete in international competitions only after obtaining individual permits and in a neutral status. In March 2023, membership was restored, while the suspension of Russian track and field athletes from competitions under the auspices of the organization remained.
In turn, the well-known Russian TV commentator Dmitry Guberniev commented on the position of Kou surprisingly extremely restrained.
"I have always said that we will remember Thomas Bach with a kind word...", wrote the voice of the Russian biathlon in his Telegram channel.
Meanwhile, Renat Laishev, president of the Sambo-70 Sports and Education Center, shared his opinion on the possible return of Russian athletes to international competitions.
"On the one hand, the "carrot", and on the other hand, they can spend a year or two without us, and then it all becomes bland and dreary. For them, first of all. It is necessary to compete with the strongest. And when there are no Brazilians, Argentines or Germans at football, what is there to watch, what kind of football? So it is with Russian figure skating and many other sports, where there are no our athletes at the world starts now. This is such sabotage against world sport. In the West, cowardly jackals in the leadership of sports. That's my idea of them. It's all because they're afraid of us.
We should ignore the Olympic Games for a long time, give our message and explain that we will be self-sufficient in our competitions, which we organize. No more ceremonies. We shouldn't even worry about it. It is necessary to do in sports, as in politics. There should be a dominance of our ideas, our proposals."
Renat Alekseevich, of course, knows how to speak beautifully and emotionally, but do not forget that our "dominance" ended with a long-term neutral status, a shameful tag, a light green cloth, lack of national identification and outright mockery of the Russian sport of the highest achievements.
And already if Kou really sits down in the chair of the head of the IOC, then you can safely "drain the water" and fully engage in children's sports at home.
Organizing (without postponement) all kinds of international tournaments in Russian cities, with the invitation of foreign athletes from countries that are not afraid of Lausanne sanctions. Are there such, or what?