But Russians are still able to compete under neutral flag, same as last year.
This lets them feel like victims but also take credit for any medals Russian athletes win. I honestly don't understand why the Olympics insist on having Russians competing when they cheated systematically even before they started murdering Ukrainians.
If we want to exclude athletes from international competition just because the ruling class in the country they happen to have been born in undertakes military action, that's fine. We just have to be consistent about it. I'd like to see athletes from the US, Isreal, UK, France, Canada, and many other countries treated the same way the west is currently treating Russian and Belorussian athletes.
The competition between USA, Russia, and China is what gets people to tune in, really. With anyone of those countries not participating, viewership tanks, is my guess.
There's also the whole thing about eschewing politics. Traditionally wars were paused for the Olympics, but I'm pretty sure that's irrelevant today, especially when the US led a boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 and then Russia boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. It's really about viewership.
Oh and the IOC is notoriously corrupt. If Russia pays to participate, the IOC will find every which way to let them, no matter how badly they cheat and genocide, same with the US and China.
I mean, I appreciate the fact that I'm getting down voted because it means we've moderated this community well enough that nobody thinks this is serious. I take this as a positive.
