Ott Järvela: The Paris Olympics prove Russia’s defeat
04.06.2024
Russian athletes are represented in Paris because the moral beacon of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach is (very) tilted. “But since few Russians are competing in Paris and the finger is pointed at them, the Paris Olympics essentially still marks Russia’s defeat,” says sports journalist Ott Järvela.
It is no news to anyone that top sports and major competitions have been a means for Russia to increase its influence in the world. With the help of top sports as soft power, the Russian Federation has proven its strength domestically and improved its reputation abroad. The Olympic Games in Paris in two months will mark a major turning point – they will show Russia’s weakness.
“By the way, until February 2022, even those active in top sports in Estonia could hear exclamations in the style of ‘look how nice it is to do top sports in Russia and/or Belarus, where all conditions are guaranteed by the state’. Why don’t we have that?” says Järvela as an aside.
But as an introduction, Järvela points out Russia’s places in the medal table of the Olympic Games in this millennium (gold-silver-bronze and the total number of medals are given in parentheses, data from Wikipedia):
2000 Sydney – 2nd most medals (32-28-29, total 89)
2002 Salt Lake City – 5th (5-4-4, 13 total)
2004 Athens – 3rd (28-26-36, total 90)
2006 Turin – 4th (8-6-8, total 22)
2008 Beijing – 3rd (24-13-23, total 60)
2010 Vancouver – 11th (3-5-7, total 15)
2012 London – 4th (18-21-26, total 65)
2014 Sochi – 1st (11-10-9, total 30)*
2016 Rio de Janeiro – 4th (19-17-20, total 56)
* This number was created after several medals were taken away and some were returned to Russian athletes.
The medal table of the Olympic Games has been the litmus test for evaluating top sports in Russia since the days of the Soviet Union. Sports journalist Järvela recalls how he witnessed the use of top sports as a propaganda tool while covering major competitions in Russia:
“I remember how, on the last day of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, in the press centre, one Russian sports journalist announced to his colleagues with sincere pride and joy: I never thought that we would win the home Olympics (“выграем олимпиаду”)!”
Even in the camp of ordinary Russians in Sochi, there was sincere enthusiasm that they were the best in the world. They didn’t know at that moment that behind the rain of medals was a national doping program. When it came out later, not even Russia admitted guilt, everything was branded as a Western conspiracy.
“2018. I was in Sochi again during the 2016 World Cup and saw with my own eyes that the medal victories of Russian doping athletes were still neatly and proudly written on the memorial in the Olympic Park. It certainly is even now,” says Järvela.
Since 2018, without the Russian flag
Since 2018, Russia has not participated in the Olympic Games to any extent. Grigori Rodchenkov, who was responsible for Russia’s national doping program at the Sochi Olympics, fled his homeland and told everything about the doping program honestly. Investigations initiated with the support of this confession revealed systemic doping (Rodchenkov’s book “Victory or Death: Russia’s Secret Doping Program” has also been published in Estonian).
Russia was punished, but unfortunately rather symbolically. Russian athletes and teams were not removed from the Olympic Games, they were forbidden to use the flag and anthem of their country. In 2018 in Pyeongchang, they competed under the name Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR), in 2021 in Tokyo and in 2022 in Beijing under the name of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
Medals were won, but less than before. They were 12th in the medal table in Pyeongchang, 5th in Tokyo and 9th in Beijing. “The decreased number of medals and the much stronger control applied to Russian athletes after the doping revelations were definitely connected,” Järvela points out. “The slight shift to the better in Beijing compared to Pyeongchang can be explained by the coronavirus pandemic, during which the work of doping controls was significantly more difficult. It would be naive to think that countries that tolerate fraud and fraud would not have used this opportunity.”
Although the Russian flag was not seen at the Olympics and the anthem was not heard (with the exception of the 2018 men’s ice hockey tournament, where the team ignored the ban on the anthem and started singing it themselves during the awards ceremony), in real life the teams were still called Russia.
Järvela recalls a scene from the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics: “I happened to sit next to two officials of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in the press stand of the ice hockey hall, who, while talking to each other, ridiculed the use of the abbreviation OAR. Their guiding principle was that “ice hockey is unthinkable without Russia, and the sooner this OAR nonsense ends, the better, because doping is not particularly useful in our field.”
It was completely irresponsible talk, but considering that the then IIHF president Rene Fasel is a personal friend of Vladimir Putin and sat almost in the front row at one of his swearing-in ceremonies, unfortunately not surprising. “The moral compass of the head of a sports organization quite often establishes the views of the lower levels as well,” Järvela admits.
The same principle applies to the International Olympic Committee. Its president, Bach, has tried to spare Russian athletes from harsh punishments since the Sochi doping scandal broke. He himself says that he is against the banning of competition based on any nationality because of personal experience. Namely, West German fencer Bach missed the 1980 Olympics in Moscow due to the boycott.
At the same time, it is impossible to erase from memory the pictures of Bach shaking hands with Putin in 2014 with a wide smile, although it was impossible for him not to know that Russia did not care about money or nature when organizing the Winter Olympics. It has been hinted in the international media that Bach has personal financial interests in Russia, but no concrete data has been provided.
The IOC put the responsibility on the sub-associations
The view of Bach and the IOC also changed on February 24, 2022, when a tougher attitude was taken towards Russian athletes. At least initially. However, when the qualifying competitions for the 2024 Paris Olympics began, the Russians were allowed back into the arena. Legally, the IOC washed its hands clean by recommending that Russians who passed background checks be allowed to compete individually and leaving the final decision to each international sports federation.
“The team ball game associations thus escaped the decision. Few of the individual sports included in the program of the Summer Olympic Games remained principled, because the smaller the sport, the more it depends on the IOC, and reading the umbrella organization’s wishes from the eyes is a custom there,” explains Ott Järvela.
So, unfortunately, Russian athletes are still present in Paris. “But despite this, the Paris Olympics symbolize, celebrate, and prove Russia’s defeat on the sports field,” emphasizes Järvela. “There are probably a few dozen of their athletes in Paris, and the medal balance is several times smaller than usual. Not a single Russian ball team will compete at the Olympics.”
“If in Pyeongchang, Tokyo, and Beijing, Russia, their friends and supporters were able to put on a good face in the face of a bad game and say that the flag is empty, everyone understands that it is us, but not in Paris anymore. The Russian Olympic team has always struck with mass. There are no masses in Paris, there are a few athletes here and there,” says Järvela. “Of course, it would be right and good if they didn’t exist at all, but considering the real political situation in sports, the result is not bad.”
Estonian boycott?!
In the last two years, there have been voices in Estonia who think that the Estonian national team should not compete in Paris if there is even one Russian athlete competing under a neutral flag. There were especially many of these voices before last year’s Riigikogu elections, and essentially, they demanded a boycott of the Paris Games.
“By now, it is clear that no Western country will boycott the Paris Olympics. It also does not seem anywhere that Ukraine will not send its delegation. The responsible West is fully present in Paris and dominates the Olympics both athletically and rhetorically. To prove the immorality of the Soviet (sports) way of thinking, this is probably the best option in the context of the Olympics,” confirms Ott Järvela.
RAUL REBANE: Russia will lose 50-70 medals through its own fault
“Based on the experience of many Olympics, I can say that when the games start, those absent due to boycott or any other reason are no longer remembered. They don’t exist and that’s it,” explains communication specialist Raul Rebane. “And that doesn’t diminish the value of the medals, especially after decades.”
According to Rebas, Russian political leaders and propagandists try to protest or put on a good face in the face of a bad game, but nobody really cares. “If nothing radical is done during the Games, Russia will lose 50-70 medals due to its Ukrainian adventure, purely through its own fault.
One future problem is already visible. Some of the top Russian athletes have fully supported the war in Ukraine and Putin. Time will tell what the attitude towards them will be in the future, but certainly, the war will not be simply ignored by their behavior.”
In May 2023, a Ukrainian social media account, Base of Ukrainian sports was created to highlight both Ukrainian sports achievements and expose Russian athletes who support Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. This account provides valuable information by monitoring Russian athletes’ social media activity and past statements to reveal their true stance.
The pictures are screenshots from the credited sources.