comment: >
  
  Why does anyone care about being a spectator of any sport at all?  Just to watch genetically superior people do things that you can't dream of doing?
context: IOC is mostly corrupt old men looking for their next bribe. >
  
  That would make it better than FIFA, which is entirely corrupt old men looking for the next bribe. >
  
  Let's just call these people what they really are:
  Money sluts. >
  
  I believe the usual term for that is whores. >
  
  Hey at least whores provide a service and probably pay taxes. I’d say IOC and FIFA are more like bottom feeding parasites. >
  
  Hey, at least bottom feeding parasites provide certain species with food. >
  
  Given the amount of drug cheating Russia shouldn't be allowed to compete at all. Do they actually have any clean athletes? >
  
  Isnt that exactly what the IOC did some years back ? I was under the impression that Russian athletes were only allowed to compete as independents,was this rule removed ? >
  
  Making Russian athletes compete as independent athletes from Russia is just a cosmetic label. They’re still representing Russia. It’s a meaningless non-consequence. Everybody still knows what country they represent. >
  
  There was a further burden of proof on them to show that they were clean however.
  I don't know the reality of if that was effective or not though.
  I believe it was mostly athletes that could prove they weren't based in or training out of Russia. >
  
  Er no, don’t you remember what just happened in 2022? Their star ice skating prodigy tested positive DURING the 2022 Olympics and wouldn’t you know it, the Russian WADA reversed it after one whole day suspension and the medals still haven’t been distributed. Shameful. >
  
  Wait, is it about Kamila Valieva? She failed a drug test in Dec 2021 and was revealed during the Olympics, but she technically didn't fail a drug test for her competition in olympics and the case was ongoing. Thus she's allowed to compete but a ceremony won't be held if she finishes top 3 (she finished 4th).
  Some of her 2021 results were canceled and Sasha finally got her deserved gold recently though, but the punishments were still probably too light. >
  
  Not OP but it sounds like Kamila. Wasn't her failed test on the day of their nationals or some other olympic qualifier? I have little faith that any Eteri skater is actually clean but that debacle takes the cake. Russia should be banned from the olympics based on that circus alone. 
  
  punishments were still probably too light.
  
  She received little to no punishments in the grand scheme of things. She was celebrated as the 'hero of Russia who was robbed by the west!' Then the Russian anti doping committee declared her innocent and she went on to tell the story of her 'persecution' through her ridiculous free skate this year. >
  
  The IOC is the main reason I haven't cared about the Olympics in years. Fuck that corrupt shitbag organization. >
  
  Ever since it split the Olympics from summer/winter every 4 years to an event every 2 years I lost interest.  Less time for overall hype. >
  
  That was a while ago, right? >
  
  30 years I think, starting from Lillehammer 1994. >
  
  I am too young to even know they once organised them in the same year. >
  
  A lot of those athletes are also military personel. >
  
  This is a nuanced scenario, which Reddit is often not the best at sorting through. 
  On one hand, yes, many of these athletes do not support the war, and have nothing to do with it. Their careers are very short, and may be competitive for only 1-2 Olympics as the human physical peak is fairly young. 
  On the other hand, Putin’s regime uses sports as a way to promote nationalism and show how “strong” the country is. He realized the political benefit enough to have a literal state-sponsored doping program. There is even a term for this, Sportswashing, a way to do reputation laundering, which does strengthen his position of power.
  Having Russian athletes compete an unattached is also BS, as everyone knows it’s Russia under another name, and Russia can just call them Russians. There is not an obvious solution that allows athletes to pursue their dreams without giving a genocidal regime some soft power and legitimacy. >
  
  i dont care if some russian olympic athletes are the nicest people in the world, never cheated or took ped, russia is killing and torturing civilians, tagetting civilian infrastructure to cause terror and humanitarian crisis, basically committing acts of genocide by kidnapping children etc...
  the fuck is this 'nuance' here? >
  
  Because nobody banned a lot of other unsavory regimes/starter of military conflicts either. 
  US, UK, China, France, Russia...then you effectively knocked out a huge portion of the planet from competing just because their politicians' choices. >
  
  Yea so? That was 40 years ago.
  Who stopped US from invading Afghanistan? Or Iraq? 
  If US wasn't punished, why should there is an expectation to go after say, China or Russia? >
  
  Past fuckups is not a good argument for continuing fuckups. >
  
  Well then, If you ban China and Russia, then maybe have US leadership for Iraq war to be tried in Hague and provide repatriation or banned from Olympics as well? >
  
  Yes, all war criminals should face justice. >
  
  Sure, but until then, there is no reason for the IOC to single out China, Saudis, Israel, UK or Russia (or whoever you think are bad), unless US athletes are also sanctioned. >
  
  Unless they're calling for all nations engaged in war or any military offensive whatsoever to be barred from the Olympics, it likely won't work. How would you draft a policy that specifically targets only Russia but not the Pemon conflict or the Israeli-Palestine conflict? >
  
  The fact that Ethiopia has killed nearly 700,000 people and still gets to participate would make this ban farcical.
  Either ban all tyrannical regimes or none. Picking and choosing is unfair to most of humanity. >
  
  The problem is who decides who is banned and what are the criteria for banning? What if the IOC decided trump was a tyrant and banned UsA from competing? I think it’s better to be neutral as possible. As shit as Russia is we cannot just claim to have an international competition and then ban nations we don’t like >
  
  
  ban nations we don’t like
  
  It's not about not liking them or disagreeing with their political system etc, it's about them actively waging war on another country in combination with state-sponsored systematic doping. Those are very clear critera for not being welcome at the Olympics. >
  
  “Waging war on another country” so why was the USA allowed to compete from 2003-2021? >
  
  Where was its state sponsored dopping programme? >
  
  Never expect anything remotely resembling ethics or morality from sports organizations. >
  
  the ioc has a long and colorful history of being a huge hypocritical asshole >
  
  Let them have their own backwater Olympics with Iran and South africa. >
  
  People said the same thing about the world cup, yet it had the most views out of any world cup. Don't hold your breath. >
  
  Shockerrrr, 100% of developed nations don’t give a fuck about slavery or human abuses especially in backwater countries lol >
  
  neither do developing countries as well lol. >
  
  Boycott the Olympics. Then the IOC can wack it all they want >
  
  Olympics lost their luster in 1936 if you ask me >
  
  Jesse Owens was a step toward civil rights. >
  
  
  waiting for the IOC to take a stand for the right thing
  
  Got bad news for you my guy, that's not what they do >
  
  I'm as pro-Ukraine as it gets.
  However, I think there should be some exemptions from the "Boycott anything Russian" bandwagon.
  Those exemptions would be:
  
  History such as museums
  Culture/Art
  The Olympics
  International Space station >
  
  I would like to agree with you but the main motivation why russia is doing those is nationalism that it uses to further its own agenda (control citizens). Because it has bastardized the meaning it's fair to boycott. >
  
  What country doesn’t use those things to further a sense of nationalism?? >
  
  You only read half of my sentence.
  The problem is when you use that national pride as a tool to influence people to whatever agenda you're having. >
  
  Same question as before >
  
  Headline: Ukraine Uses every possible avenue to blacklist Russia and name calls if it doesn't get it's way.
  I'm rooting for Ukraine but this shitposting everyone who doesn't yield to them isn't a great look. >
  
  People, we all saw “Muriel’s Wedding.” If you’re a Russian athlete and want to participate in the Olympics, then move to Australia, marry a Toni Collette type, otherwise fuck off! >
  
  I agree with Ukraine on this. F the Russian athletes.  Sorry but you are representing not just yourself but your country and they invaded and are murdering people of another country.  You want to compete then push back at your government. Else suck it >
  
  Haven't been a huge fan of the Olympics, but won't be watching it this time for sure - I'm enough of covered in blood russian terrorists. Probably won't be watching any Olympics from now on - strong associations are hard to get over, and Olympics personally for me  now will be associated with IOC, corruption, drugs, and russian terrorists. >
  
  Haha all the countries that killed hundreds thousand civilians in the past 40 years and participated in Olympics and only now you decided that you mind it >
  
  He has Reddit brain >
  
  if ioc follows through, all others shall boycott. then it will be lonesome games amongst russia, belarus, iran, north korea, china, india, nicaragua, south africa. >
  
  Again, If they banned Russia for this, they would have to ban other nations. The US would be banned for Vietnam, 'The war on terror', syria, and countless South American countries they destabilized. >
  
  The fact that the IOC didn’t do what was right 50 years ago isn’t really an argument against doing what’s right this time. >
  
  I get your point but do you see how "yet another example of the hypocrisy of the west" this looks?
  You want to start on a moral high ground, start it when the high ground is in your own yard. Only then will it seem genuine. 
  Otherwise its just another eye roll and the rest of the world has done enough of that. >
  
  It's a big stretch to call them promoters of war now, I understand those athletes have nothing to do with the war and their career is usually very short. Everyone here seems to care so much about the fact that Russia then will claim some sort of superiority if they win something, but that's bullshit, none of you even know nor care about medals anyway, as most people do, almost only the athletes care and they're individuals with nothing to do with anything that's going on in their countries. Let those people compete, ruining their dreams will do nothing for the war. Focus on the real issue ffs. >
  
  A lot of Russian athletes formally in army or police like ""dynamo" or "cska" club. They have military rank and still in this military. At least military part of Russian athletes must be disqualified >
  
  Those arguing the "what about this country years ago" keep in mind the key difference is this is going on right now. RU is the invader and actively commiting crimes against humanity. Maybe RU should withdraw from their invasion and everyone can have the olympics like usual... which no one can watch because we're working all the time >
  
  The problem with this logic is the next time when United States or it’s allied nation infringes upon sovereignty of other nation, can we trust ourselves to subject our country and leaders to the same standard?
  Mind you, if anyone spoke up against Bush’s invasion of Iraq on 2003, you were basically deemed a traitor regardless of whether you were democrat or Republican. 
  If we cannot trust our institution and public to uphold/apply consistency to ourselves when we fail to meet the standard of law that we’ve set, than setting this precedent will only leads to gradual destruction of international community >
  
  Yes negative actions should have negative consequences no matter who commits the action. Too often it is outside of the publics control, which is unfortunate for everyone. But negative actions that arent delt with will slowly turn into corruption, which lead to gradual destruction of their own society from within.
  Its 2023. No one should be invading anyone. Its barbaric >
  
  What’s most important is who’s giving out the judgment and whether we can actually trust them to enforce such standard of judgement on themselves whenever it’s applicable. If it’s going to be selectively applied, than that’s not justice. It’s merely a tool for fat white old politicians in Washington and Europe to persuade us to be onboard with punishing their enemy further. 
  Do you really think American public, EU, or any Western media would demand U.S to be kicked out of Olympic next time some warmongering nutjob gets into office and invades some country (let’s be real, it’s probably going to happen). 
  Mind you, the reason why I’m against this is not because I’m against sanction in general. It’s because International sports event, regardless of how corrupt it is, should be treated much like United Nation. You don’t kick a country out of UN just be they are being a dick bag >
  
  This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 81%. (I'm a bot)
  
  
  An advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted the International Olympic Committee for considering ways to allow Russian athletes to compete.
  Le Monde with AFP. Published on January 30, 2023 at 11h44 Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak on Monday, January 30, called the International Olympic Committee a "Promoter of war" after the sports body said it was considering ways for Russian athletes to compete.
  The IOC has faced a backlash from Ukraine after it said last week it was looking into a "Pathway" for Russians to take part, including as neutral athletes.
  
  
  Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Russian^#1 Olympic^#2 athletes^#3 Monde^#4 Russia^#5 >
  
  The Olympics are and aren't a soap box. Nation states are allowed to compete on the world stage BECAUSE complete isolated communities take a continuous negative hit the empathy, we don't want the Russian public to swing so far into nihilism and self destruction that they would cheer nuclear Armageddon, and at the same time countries participate in the Olympics to use it as a soap box to claim their ideological superiority and propaganda.
  In the end I think Russia needs to be allowed to compete and hopefully lose and efforts need to be taken to prevent them from cheating. >
  
  Countries committing genocide, actively murdering athletes of other nations and destroying their venues shouldn’t compete. They shouldn’t be rewarded for cheating and destroying the competition. 
  Simple as that. Nobody would have accepted Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in the cancelled 1944 Olympics and both were still not invited to the 1948 games. >
  
  US during Iraq war? >
  
  This is a false equivalence. 
  Do you understand and acknowledge that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine? Mass torture and executions of civilians, trafficking of children, the intentional annihilation of culture and language?
  If you can’t see that then there’s no point interacting with Russian stooges. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is not comparable to what you’re implying. >
  
  Over a million Iraqis died as a result of the war. Countless momunemts & historical artifacts were destroyed & looted. America literally set up a torture camp where they'd regularly abuse & rape innocent people for fun and the perpetrators got away with a slap on the wrist. Read up on Abu Ghraib. They used depleted uranium shells which caused causing a massive spike in cancer & birth defect for newborn babies.
  You're right it isn't comparable. What happened in Iraq was way worse than the Ukraine conflict, so far. And guess what, Ukraine participated in the occupation of Iraq. >
  
  As I said, there’s no point interacting with Russian stooges. >
  
  Can no one see how ridiculous this is getting? Ukraine is at the point where they are acting like Russia is the only country to ever go to war. But let’s punish some gymnasts. >
  
  Ahem, "special operation" >
  
  Being Russian isn't about being a supporter of war, Ukraine seems to use their victim status to create a racist approach towards all Russians. I support Ukraine for their independence struggle but this is too much >
  
  Russia kills Ukrainian athletes right now. A lot of Russian athletes formally in army or police like "dynamo" or "cska" club. They have military rank and still in this military. At least military part of Russian athletes must be disqualified >
  
  I'm not sure if Ukraine realises there is nearly no interest in boycotting Olympics anymore since the Moscow and LA debacles.
  Also, the Lawn Tennis Association lost a law suit on banning Russian and Belarussian players and Russian and Belarussian players played in the Australian Open, so I'm not exactly sure why they are just picking on the IOC. >
  
  
  Lawn Tennis Association lost a law suit
  
  They didn't, they were fined by ATP which is totally different. Besides, if a country does not want Russian athletes they can just cancel their visas. >
  
  IOC = FIFA >
  
  IOC never stopped USA from participating after all the wars they have started, countless children they have killed - why would they start that with Russia? Can some one please explain that to me? Like what is the expectation >
  
  I bet a lot of the athletes want to defect >
  
  Borders are open for anyone, including athletes. Bet lost. >
  
  Canadian here, personally if the IOC doesn't back down on this I am 100% against team Canada having anything to do with the games.
  I'd also be more than happy to label any corporate supportor as being complicit of supporting war crimes.
  For what little that's worth. >
  
  Fuck the IOC >
  
  Ukraine is really enjoying being the world's lil police >
  
  If Russia is allowed to compete, there should be a worldwide boycott of the Olympics. >
  
  I don't think you understand the point of the Olympics.
  It's like people trying to kick Russia out of the UN don't understand the UN's purpose. >
  
  It should be kicked not from UN but from UNSC.
  Because exactly this high seat makes the whole UN useless and obsolete. >
  
  That would make the UN obsolete cause Russia would completely pull out and push harder with BRICS. That'll definitely make things worse at a global level.
  The point of the UN is to come together and have a conversation, not lead a world government. >
  
  The most crucial purpose of the UN was to ensure that "never again". 
  As we may see - it had failed. Miserably.
  In the present condition, the UNSC is just useless. What's the point of gathering if the main culprit vetoes anything out of his own agenda? >
  
  Discussion is the point— it's called diplomacy. >
  
  By design, it was GA "for discussions" and SC "for urgent decisions".
  The first part still works. The second - is not.
  Let me ask you directly: do you really state that SC in its present condition works at all? >
  
  Yes it works well at preventing other cold wars. At worst (as I mentioned) it'll make the BRICS+ nations to pull away from the UN leading to a fragmented global unity. >
  
  Oh yes, UNSC inaction effectively transformed the cold war into a pretty hot one. /s
  I'm sorry, but to me, it's a borderline to Chamberlain logic: let's give em what they want and they'll be appeased (at least for the time being). It will not work.
  The issue is not even in Russia itself but in the foundation: we have some "superpowers" that are above the other peasants, could threaten them with nukes and therefore are above the common laws.
  If Russia and China will hold to UN only on account they can block anything - what's the point to pretend we're still one happy family and acting in good faith? Yes, I see your reasoning "let's try to preserve what we still have", but it could lead to a dangerous illusion that the order stays firm and the institute works.
  UNSC should be reformed. >
  
  So obviously callling them promoters of violence, mass murder and destruction didnt work to have them change their point of view. >
  
  Yeah, but the ROC is not the country of Russia, so it's fine. If I had to deal with that bullshit years ago, then you have to deal with it now. >
  
  Yes I agree. Any country that wrongfully invades another and murders their citizens en masse should be banned. That’s why the US and all NATO member countries should withdraw as well. >
  
  I will never watch the olympics if the Fascist murderers that are butchering fellow humans that are yearning for freedom are allowed to attend. Ever ever. Never forgive or forget what the Russians are willing to do. Burn in Hell >
  
  Huge mistake IOC..... >
  
  The first modern Olympic was Nazi Germany.  It’s always been a nightmare. >
  
  Ehm, no, it was Greece in 1896. >
  
  Let them compete... Under the Ukrainian flag with the Ukrainian national anthem. That way , if they win a medal the Rússia media won't advertise it. >
  
  As a Ukrainian I would not like to have russians in our team. Not in any capacity. >
  
  I know that Putin uses Russophobia as a deflection and against everything, but this comment does seem a little like Russophobia. 
  Unless you’re just trying to say only Ukrainian nationals should be able to compete for Ukraine, which yeah is a rule of the Olympic Charter. >
  
  I mean people from russia, not russian nationals.
  The majority of Ukrainians became very anti russian over the last year for obvious reasons. When it was told that russian journalist Alexander Nevzorov is getting Ukrainian citizenship, there was quite the wave to stop that. Because people do not want people from russia in Ukraine. >
  
  I can understand why Ukrainians would be so anti-Russians, but I can’t say I support that. If it’s a worry over Russia sending spies to Ukraine under the guise of escapees, that’s a whole different story. 
  But keep in mind that Russians are indoctrinated with state propaganda. A lot of them are basically brainwashed into supporting Putin. And a lot of the younger people who have access to western media (through VPNs and stuff) are against Putin and the war in Ukraine. 
  It’s just that protesting is pretty much pointless. There’s not enough people that know the truth in Russia, and the ones that protest aren’t in enough numbers to force Putin out of Ukraine. Who would risk years / decades in a Russian prison just to be immediately silenced and have no positive effect? >
  
  If someone invaded your country, would you happily welcome them?
  Russia overplayed their hands and the world called their  bluff. Truth to be told, it is sad for the dead on both sides, but Russia's pending defeat presents an opportunity for it to be rebuilt into a functional democracy.
  Due time will tell if the propaganda machine keeps up with the amount of dead and rising dissent. >
  
  The entirety of the Russian population didn’t invade Ukraine. Putin and his cronies did. 
  If someone lost a family member in an ISIS attack, would you justify their hatred for the entire population of Muslims? >
  
  Hundreds of thousands of the Russian population are invading Ukraine and committing massacres and war crimes, and many more back in Russia are supportive of them and contributing to the war effort. It's not just "Putin and his cronies". >
  
  Wait, I thought "not being at war" was a literal requirement to participate? >
  
  RuZzia calls everyone Nazis, satanist and homosexuals without any values. Great opportunity for them to pull out voluntarily out of Olympics. Why do they even want to participate???!