This is the expression of vengefulness that drives the ban on the junior skaters. Vengeance is not justice. Justice is punishing those who are responsible in a proportional way. Russian junior skaters are not responsible for the war. They did absolutely nothing that warrants ISU refusing to admit them to junior competitions year after year, despite even the IOC now supporting their inclusion.
I don't know much about history of Olympic games, but it isn't the first time when a country is banned from competition based on something that happened outside of sport. You can hate it that your favorite skaters can't perform at the olympics, but well, many of them couldn't even try to compete for that one spot offered to them, because they directly or indirectly support what's happening outside of sport.
Neither are russian business owners who now can't make business outside of Russia or regular Russian citizens who can't go to normal vacation trip to Venice or something. It's not fun to have to deal with consequences of someone else's action and war is one of the worst thing that could happen to people.
The official Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter", which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together". Updated by the International Olympic Committee in 2021 to include "Together" (Communiter), it emphasizes solidarity and the unifying power of sport.
ISU has the full control of consequences of a government waging a war or having objectionable politics in figure skating. It is fully within thir jurisdiction to be fair, transparent and consistent. They are not, and, consequently, the sport is now toxic.
You understand that other skaters under this coach participated in competitions throughout the 2022-2026 cycle and will compete in the Olympics? That this coach is welcomed by the ISU? That the coach was not reprimanded in any way and still holds the title awarded by the ISU of the Coach of the Year? That ISU went after the athletes independently of who the train with instead. Yes or no? If yes, what is your feeling of improved legitimacy is based upon exactly?
Oh I side eye EVERYTHING about this coach and have privately side eyed other skaters they are coaching this cycle. But there’s definitely a huge selection of athletes not associated with this person for me to enjoy. Like I said YMMV but I personally feel very sketchy about the last Olympics.
And you don't think that this selection of athletes would have increased with a ban on the actual culprit, the coach instead of the ban on Russian athletes who neither train with this coach nor even live in the same city as this coach does? Instead, the ISU kept the culprit and their suspect students, thus rewarding the guilty and punishing the innocent. Do you feel that rewarding the guilty and punishing the innocent increases legitimacy?
To be honest? Really don’t care that much! The poster asked a question and I answered as to what my general vibes and feelings are. I care more about my grocery shopping and meal plans for my family. I don’t spend time pondering this much. It’s more of a “Yeah I’m enjoying this more this time round.” It ain’t that deep for me.
Not to derail this but Valieva was a 15 year old girl raised by her single mother. Swiatak is worth tens of millions, has resources and people helping her that a 15 year old and her mother do not. Not to mention it's the interests of tennis to have number 1 players not be convicted and tarnish the sport, where from day one in Beijing with all the information being leaked at will, it seemed a lot of people wanted to see Valieva and Russian figure skating be destroyed.
When a pairs team has to withdraw from an event on the eve of the Olympics, they should consider themselves lucky if it's the biggest problem in their lives.
Actually, as I stated repeatedly, it's not about participation of someone specific in the Olympics. It wouldn't have made me any happier if it was Dvoeglazova not Petrosyan, or Dikidzhi not Gumennik who was selected. I care about the Russian Juniors not being able to compete in junior competitions and about toxicity created by the ISU's unfair practices in the sport.
The only real difference is that Świątek could present credible explanation, which was an unopened bottle of the medication form the same batch she used that occured to be contaminated with banned substance and Valieva could only present dumb, dumber and dumbest theory. I personally dgaf about russian figure skating and am commenting this thread only because you are trying to brand innocent person as a doper who got away.
I think she is comparing the effect of the ban on different skaters, not comparing the ban to other tragedies. And she is probably right that the effect on the younger skaters is greater than the effect on the more established ones.
Valieva is a 15 year old, not someone worth tens of millions who has the resources to chase down a contaminated bottle of medication.
Her 4CC performance was the kind of program I would have loved to see win the Olympic gold medal. Full of choreography, details, charisma, beautiful positions, interesting jump combinations, excellent technique.
