Dr.Sc.Pol., Professor A.P. Koshkin¹
A.V. Novikov¹
V.V. Cherdantsev¹
E.Yu. Rozhina^1
1Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow

Keywords: politics, Olympic Games, doping, elite sports, IOC, Russia.

Background. Professional sports and top-ranking sport competitions are ranked high on the lists of the national policy priorities the world over. The leading western nations and some international sport organizations keep stating that the rampant doping scandal since 2015 has nothing to do with the vested political interests. However, the actual policies and practices of the relevant international commissions for this time have convinced the Russian society and the national professional sport community in quite the reverse. As found by the VSIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Center) public opinion poll in February 2018, the situation with the Russian national team being barred from the Olympics and forced to defend the discriminatory ‘neutral’ colors – is well-known as unfair for 92% of the Russian people; with 52% of the people polled saying that the national government and decision-makers have been too sluggish to protect and support the Russian athletes. These public opinions force the national policy-makers and sport sector management take more determined and effective efforts to defend and support the national professional sport sector.

Objective of the study was to analyze the ongoing political campaign of 2015-2018 with its doping scandal meant to demonize the Russian professional sports system.

Study findings and discussion.

IOC decision and role of WADA

It was for the first time in the modern Olympic movement history that a national Olympic Committee was totally barred from the Olympics as was the case with the XXIII (2018) Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang with the Russian team excluded for the formal reason of doping issues in the team. The decision was made by the IOC, with the national team totally barred from the Pyeongchang Olympics with the only exclusion for a few Russian athletes on the following strict conditions: the athletes should have never had doping issues in the past, with their names approved by an independent qualification commission. The decision to bar the Russian national team from the 2018 Winter Olympics crowned the long chain of the global scandals geared to demonize the Russian professional sports, with the biased decision laying a foundation for the further discrimination. The IOC actions and decisions in this case have been rather contradictory and driven by the double standards, with the agency turning a blind eye to the fact that no proofs of the direct involvement of the Russian government and President Putin in the alleged doping system in the country have ever been found and presented. It should be noted that in the crisis period the IOC has had to sneak around changing its words and position now and again to cater for the vested economic, political and strategic interests. Anyway, this negative experience and the ongoing crisis have casted doubt on the modern Olympic movement control bodies and their policies and practices – that are clearly and increasingly driven by rather obscure criteria and vested political interests.

Political campaign to demonize Russia

As provided by the UNESCO Convention, WADA is controlled and 50% financed by the shareholding nations and the sport movements as such – that means that the international sports management agency is designed on a decentralized basis and, hence, may be easily fragmented. As far as the IOC position in the Russian case is concerned, it may be interpreted as intended to please the multiple multilateral agencies seeking to punish Russia for no matter what reason, with the most radical policies pursued by the western national Olympic Committees and their doping control agencies – despite the fact that some international sport federations come up with much more balanced and reasonable policies. It may be stated with confidence that the leading global sport organizations have evolved into political tools for the vested and ill-disposed political interests.

Growing demand for the global sport system reform

As things now stand, the IOC has to weave and elaborate web to balance multiple interests and find compromises to keep up the Olympics and their image of a fair non-political global sport event – that is already and irreparably stained. This is the reason why the IOC has acted like a loose cannon since the first days of the Russian professional sports demonizing campaign. The Committee has had to adjust its position many times to the global political winds to somehow balance the conflicting interests in the global sport system. It is unlikely realistic to expect that these policies and practices may go back to the fair play principles one day after the 2018 Olympics unless the system is reformed.

Russia’s response

It should be confessed that the Russian government has been too gentle in its responses so far – in contrast to the Russian society that increasingly doubts that it makes sense to further compete in the stained and discriminatory Olympics. Russia has a wide range of potential counter actions in its disposal in response to the unfair IOC policies and actions that may be painful for the latter in many fields and aspects. The ongoing crisis may evolve along the following scenarios.

Scenario one: Russia leaves the IOC and organizes an alternative global sport event

Such an event could be of promise, conditional on its fair play policies, for the CIS, SCO and BRICS nations plus many other national sport federations, including western ones. It should be confessed, however, that such a one-sided withdrawal from the global Olympic sport movement will unlikely be supported by the other nations and unlikely much detrimental to the international Olympic sports – in contrast to the former USSR times when such a boycott could be painful as supported by many Eastern Union nations. Moreover, such an individual withdrawal from the Olympic sport movement could be of negative effect on the elite sports in the country despite the short-term popular support of such a radical step.

Scenario two: Russia formally stays in the IOC but organizes an alternative global sport event

In this case, the IOC may run into a crisis similar to that faced by the FIDE that now runs a few alternative global games run in parallel to nominate and glorify their own world champions in every sport discipline and never know who is a real ‘champion of champions’.

Scenario three: a global political campaign to protest the biased policies of WADA and IOC

This scenario may further deepen the already existing split in the global sport movement, with some sport accomplishments acknowledged by the international sport communities and the others disputed by multiple relevant institutions. At this juncture, 62% of the Russian people still honor the national Olympic champions even if they are forced to defend the discriminatory ‘neutral’ colors, with only one of four Russians perceiving them as nationally unaffiliated individual athletes – but it may not be the case later on under this scenario.

Conclusion. Nowadays global sports are viewed as a driving force both for the transnational large-scale businesses and the global policy makers as their effects on the national policies, social and economic progress cannot be underestimated. The ongoing and growing ‘arms race’ in the global sports of the new millennium with their pharmaceutical issues, fights for the hosting rights etc. is due to the fact that every nation acknowledges the powerful influences of the elite sports on the foreign and home policies and processes and strives to apply them for a variety of interests – that are not always purely sporting and fair ones. Some nations particularly active in the dirty politicking tend to cover up them by the veils of sporting values and high morale. On the whole, the global sports receive multiple contradictory messages these days on how to act, train, compete and progress, with the system of benchmarks on what is right and wrong and who is the champion – being rapidly diluted.

References

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Corresponding author: 160957@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to analyze the ongoing political campaign of 2015-2018 with its doping scandal geared to demonize the Russian professional sports system. Historical analysis, comparative analysis and institutional study methods were applied for the study purposes to lay a conceptual basis for analyses. The study analyzes the situation in the global sports in the context of recent political trends of the new millennium with a special attention to the Russian professional sport demonizing politicking campaign and its geopolitical drivers that are of particularly degrading effect on the top-ranking international sport events including the Olympic Games and 2018 FIFA World Cup. The key question now is whether or not the global sport system is able to clean itself of the biased politicking and dirty campaigning.