Disqualified Ukrainian fencer Kharlan reinstated, awarded Paris Olympics place
france24.com
Ukrainian fencer Olha Kharlan was awarded a place in the 2024 Paris Olympics by the IOC on Friday after she was disqualified at the world championships for refusing to shake the hand of her Russian opponent.
Good, it’s the right thing to do. Russians shouldn’t even be allowed anywhere near international athletics until Putin is arrested and standing trial for war crimes at The Hague.
Also, everything else aside, not until they stop doping all their fucking athletes.
The idea is the majority of their athletes are proven to be clean. There are definitely a decent number who got caught, and more scrutiny should be on Russia athletes than any other (Though all should be fully tested), but I believe it exposed only a subset of the Russian team was caught. 70 percent of the Russians were allowed to compete under the Olympic Flag.
Do I think IOC caught everyone who was doping? Of course not. Do I think every Russian was doping? I find that equally hard to believe.
Then again the fact it was only a four year ban for a state sponsored scheme? WTF.. but it just show IOC is still just one of the worst governing bodies in sports.
If I were a professional athlete I would feel in the right to refuse to shake the hand of an athlete coming from a country proven to have a state-sponsored doping program significant enough to warrant that country's flag being banned from the Olympics long before this war.
Clearly this was about the war, but let's not pretend sportsmanship was intact before this handshake debacle came to be.
There's actually pretty famous fencing cheating scandal that happened during 1976 Olympics. The soviet athlete was caught using electronic device to score victory.
The athlete was from modern day Ukraine BTW and IIRC he was allowed to compete in other events afterwards. He achieved very solid results even without cheating. So it wasn't something that he really needed to do in order to win, it's just the soviet apparatus wasn't taking any risks as sports are major propaganda outlets for them. Stakes are just too high for them not to cheat. The system is simply corrupt by design. Modern day russia just continues doing the same.
It's almost immoral to let russians compete even from the point of russian athletes as they are effectively forced to dope and cheat.
"reinstated"... I mean her win exists, but she still was kicked out of the tournament. She'll get her place, but I would bet hard money on the fact she would have preferred to stay in the tournament and compete for real.
This is IOC saving face, something they have to do far too frequently.
It sounds like the IFE is also making the right move to remove the handshake. I won't say all Russians (under the Olympic flag) have to be banned. Though this pro-war piece of shit is make a hell of an effort for me to change my mind on that. But forced sportsmanship needs to stop being a thing, because then it's not sportsmanship, when it's a rule, it's just a requirement of what you have to do.
I don't think I'd want to shake the hand of someone whose people are illegally pillaging and destroying my homeland either. I'd sooner rather spit on it.
I mean, the US/UK leveled Irak / Afghanistan, but their athletes have been welcome to compete everywhere. No one spits at them, as far as I know.
If someone has such strong feelings against another country, they might as well go to the front line and kill/get killed. Fuck this girl and all chicken hawks out there.
She is on the frontline winning important battles. There are often smarter ways to fight. Perhaps that's not obvious to vatniks that are told the only way to victory are countless meatgrinder waves of conscripts and prisoners.
I competed in a tiny lil Olympic sport no one outside of the shooting sports has ever heard of (double trap). Wasn't nearly good enough to attend international competition, but the competitor pool was small and I knew plenty who did.
The IOC and the Olympics are nothing more than a scam. I respect the athletes dedication but after seeing the IOC's scumfuckery up close I have 0 interest in the Olympics.
Did her opponent support the invasion of Ukraine?
If not, then that's absolutely bad sportsmanship at its finest.
y'all don't understand we're going by a dangerous route again with this kinda shit. nobody sane in their mind thinks Putin is in the right, but if y'all gon refuse to shake the hand of a competitor because they were born in the wrong country with the wrongest politician, that's just petty and childish, and shows we really never learn from our mistakes.
Read up about this, because you're mistaken. This wasn't just because she's from the "Wrong country". She's an outspoken advocate for the war. Kharlan's brother is defending the Ukraine in the army.
Yeah I wouldn't be able to shake her hand either.
that changes things
The Ukrainian fencer did offer her weapon for tapping it, which is pretty much an equivalent of a handshake - much less cordial, sure but still. It was the Russian who then threw a tantrum to fuck with her oponent.
Classic russian behavior, play the victim even though you are the aggressor.
"Stop making me invade you! Why are you so meeeeeaaaan?!?"
they aren't the only ones with that move at the front of their playbook.
No, the one being petty and childish is the Russian who puts out a hand to a person which country is being occupied by theirs.
By competing under a Russian flag (or any flag for that matter) you represent a country and it's ideas. The "petty and childish" stance is not being ashamed of what your country does to others, not the other way around.
Not to mention that Smirnova was offered to tap sabers and instead decided to sit and pout for close to an hour.
The dangerous route was already taken. Ukrainian people are getting slaughtered, today.
What a beautiful speech you give, completely blind to reality.
that's some nonsense reasoning
who knew that pre-game handshakes were load bearing when it came to the apparent house of cards that is modern society
Fascists gonna fascist