The world of sport changed today.
Star Belarusian basketballer and two-time Olympian Yelena Leuchanka was arrested, tortured and imprisoned for joining street protests against her country's government in late 2020.
Her sport's profile helped raise the issue of her treatment internationally, encouraging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to place sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was also head of the country's national Olympic committee.
Overnight, under the IOC's recommendation to all sports that athletes and officials from Belarus and Russia be banned from international events in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, the sport world that saved Leuchanka has now abandoned her.
She is not the only one.
Athletes in Russia who have also put themselves at risk in the past week by protesting and publicly speaking against the invasion of Ukraine — such as World Cup footballer Fedor Smolov, NHL hockey star Alex Ovechkin and two-time Olympic gold medal figure skater Tatiana Volosozhar — have also been abandoned.
With player unions and associations deciding they are there to represent some — who by an accident of birth are on the "right side" of the Russia-Ukraine war – but not others, any pretence that the sport world operated above politics has finally been discarded.
New men's tennis world number one Daniil Medvedev may now be unable to do his job at the French Open, because he comes from Russia.
If the Court of Arbitration for Sport was not busy before, it will be now.
No longer can the IOC claim it operates above politics.
The Olympic Truce — a United Nations resolution supported by an overwhelming number of nations ahead of each Olympic and Paralympic Games — has been broken by Russia three times in the last 14 years, with its invasion of Georgia during the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, Crimea during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and now Ukraine ahead of the Beijing Paralympic Games, which being on Friday.
The IOC raised this point overnight in announcing its recommendation that sport not only bans teams and clubs from Russia, but also cancels the ability for individuals from Russia and Belarus to play or officiate.
"The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) discussed again today the dilemma the Olympic Movement is currently facing after the breach of the Olympic Truce by the Russian government and the government of Belarus through its support in this," an IOC statement read.
"The Olympic Movement is united in its mission to contribute to peace through sport and to unite the world in peaceful competition beyond all political disputes.
"The Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, World Championships and World Cups and many other sports events unite athletes of countries, which are in confrontation and sometimes even war.
"At the same time, the Olympic Movement is united in its sense of fairness not to punish athletes for the decisions of their government if they are not actively participating in them. We are committed to fair competitions for everybody without any discrimination."
In the next passage, the IOC erased the very claim it made above.
"The current war in Ukraine, however, puts the Olympic Movement in a dilemma," the statement read.
"While athletes from Russia and Belarus would be able to continue to participate in sports events, many athletes from Ukraine are prevented from doing so because of the attack on their country.
"This is a dilemma which cannot be solved. The IOC EB has therefore today carefully considered the situation and, with a heavy heart, issued the following resolution:
- In order to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants, the IOC EB recommends that International Sports Federations and sports event organisers not invite or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions.
- Wherever this is not possible on short notice for organisational or legal reasons, the IOC EB strongly urges International Sports Federations and organisers of sports events worldwide to do everything in their power to ensure that no athlete or sports official from Russia or Belarus be allowed to take part under the name of Russia or Belarus. Russian or Belarusian nationals, be it as individuals or teams, should be accepted only as neutral athletes or neutral teams. No national symbols, colours, flags or anthems should be displayed.Wherever, in very extreme circumstances, even this is not possible on short notice for organisational or legal reasons, the IOC EB leaves it to the relevant organisation to find its own way to effectively address the dilemma described above. In this context, the IOC EB considered in particular the upcoming Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and reiterated its full support for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Games."
Simultaneously, in supporting the human rights of Ukrainian athletes to play and participate in sport, the IOC has ruled a line through the same human rights of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
So why the sudden change from the high ideals the Olympic movement has always said it stood for?
Australia's most senior Olympic official, John Coates — the president of the Australian Olympic Committee and vice-president of the IOC — has been unavailable to the media since cancelling his visit to the Beijing Winter Olympics due to health issues.
As a member of the IOC's executive board, his perspective would be interesting.
Politics at the highest level cannot be discounted in this.
The next three Summer Olympic Games are held in countries that have been at the forefront of sanctions and retaliatory actions against Russia – France, the United States and Australia.
Winter Paralympic Games face dilemma
The IPC now has some tough decisions to make.
It has been working overtime to get the team from Ukraine into Beijing for the Winter Paralympic Games. Several members of the Russian team have already arrived.
Do they send those Russians home? And others that are on the way, do they turn them around?
Should the efforts to get Ukrainian athletes into China be halted so as not to embarrass the IOC, after it stated one of the justifications for banning Russian and Belarusian athletes was that Ukrainian athletes are unable to compete?
What happens next time the US and its allies decide to invade a country, as happened in Iraq almost 20 years ago?
Do athletes from the US, Australia and the United Kingdom forfeit their right to play sport?
Will athlete unions, such as World Players Association and Global Athlete, call for those from those nations to be banned?
Back in 1894 French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the IOC, aiming to educate people through sport with the ambition of creating a better more peaceful world.
At the heart of his vision was this statement: "[The Games] Are global. All people must be allowed in, without debate."
The Olympic movement has been roundly criticised for decades for saying it exists above politics, as a way of showing the world it can come together in peace for the two weeks every four years that athletes gather to compete at either the Summer or Winter Games.
The IOC's recommendation that it is politics that will determine who gets to compete in the neutral pursuit of sport threatens to undermine the very foundations of the movement itself.
Yes, there have been sanctions against nations before — most notably after World War II — but in recent history provisions have been made for athletes to be able to continue competing under the neutral IOC flag.
This includes the Australians who marched under the IOC flag in Moscow in 1980 — after the federal government decided Australia would boycott the Summer Games — through to athletes from Russia at the Beijing Winter Olympics last month.
While bribery, corruption and political favours have always existed inside the governance of world sport — as they do in almost every other arena — the ability for athletes from everywhere to come together has been a positive symbol of humanity since the first modern Games in Athens 1896.
The recommendation by the IOC has ended one of the few — and longest held — traditions celebrated globally: the right for athletes from around the world to come together despite their nation's political, religious and ideological differences.
