Sawt Falasteen - Coventry's mettle tested by Russian Olympic debate, say former IOC figures

With just six months to go to the opening ceremony for the Milan-Cortina Winter Games the odds are that Russian athletes -- normally a Winter Games superpower -- will have to compete under a neutral banner, owing to the country breaching the Olympic Charter.

The IOC excluded the Russian NOC after it had placed under its authority several sports organisations from Ukrainian regions that Russian forces now occupy.

That move came after President Vladimir Putin -- not for the first time in his country's turbulent relationship with the IOC -- broke the Olympic Truce when he launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

When the IOC under Thomas Bach -- and with Coventry a member of the Executive Committee -- permitted Russian athletes to compete as neutrals at the Paris Summer Olympics last year, some federations took a far harsher line.

World Athletics barred all athletes from Russia and its allies Belarus from its competitions, as did other federations.

The scenario is no different for winter sports, with the International Ski Federation (FIS), which is responsible for more than half the Olympic medal events, biathlon and luge taking a similar stance, though figure skating has not followed suit.

Michael Payne, a former head of IOC marketing, told AFP there is "no question that Russia at some stage has to be brought back in from the cold" -- but the 2026 Winter Games will come too soon.

"Kirsty Coventry is in the spotlight, everyone is watching everyone," he said.

"There will be strong views and opinions no matter what decision you take. You will have various politicians using that decision to make a point, (and it) probably won't always be complimentary.

"You are walking on thin ice. I think the right thing is to say you cannot rush this, you cannot blindside different stakeholders and politicians.

"The political challenges facing a new IOC president was always going to be a baptism of fire."

- 'Complex problems' -

Payne said Russia was the "elephant in the room" for all of Bach's 12-year tenure, from the two invasions of Ukraine to the state-sponsored doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

The 67-year-old Irishman says the challenge for Coventry is that politicians are seeking "to weaponise the sports agenda" once again having largely stayed away during earlier eras, such as that of Juan Antonio Samaranch's tenure from 1980-2001.

"One of Samaranch's great achievements was to bury the boycott agenda and for the better part of three decades or more politicians generally left sport alone," said Payne, who is credited with overhauling the IOC's brand and finances through sponsorship during Samaranch's reign.

"Under Bach, with the Russia/Ukraine agenda, politics re-entered it and navigating an ever more complicated global political environment and keeping sport out of the crossfire is going to tax any leader.

"A new leader is going to have their hands full."

Another former IOC marketing executive, Terrence Burns, knows Russia well having first worked there in 1992 as Delta Air Lines' country marketing manager for the entity then known as the Commonwealth of Independent States.

"There's no shortcut back in," Burns told AFP, adding that Russia "has never really owned up to any of it".

"There's been no admission, no accountability. Zero," the American said. "That leaves the IOC in a tough but manageable spot.

"If Russia wants back in, it's going to have to show it's willing to change."

Burns, who later played a key role in five successful Olympic bid city campaigns, argued however that in the end Russia is integral to the Olympics.

"The Olympics need Russia at the Games, just as they need the USA, China, etc," said Burns.

"The true Olympic thesis is 'we all belong, or no one does.' That works fine in theory, speeches, and marketing campaigns.

"Translating it into the real geopolitical world is a hell of a lot harder than it looks."

Burns believes the Russians should not expect a speedy return.

"People always want simple answers for complex problems," he said.

"But the IOC cannot afford simplistic solutions because the universality that it espouses may well be the last, truly global theology upon all humanity can agree.

"Yes, I think the stakes are that big. (Coventry) knows this too and she won't be pressed into a 'convenient decision.'"

C.Hamad--SF-PST