Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin says he wants Russian athletes to rejoin the global community soon
© Kay Nietfeld / picture alliance via Getty Images
Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin has shared his hopes that athletes from his country will soon rejoin the global sporting community after numerous teams and competitors were banished by international federations due to the military operation in Ukraine.
Russia has faced a large swathe of sanctions since the onset of the campaign in February, not least of which was the large-scale banishment from international sport which has seen Russia stripped of the 2022 UEFA Champions League final hosting rights and its national team effectively barred from this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Elsewhere, bans have hit Russians in the fields of gymnastics, figure skating and rugby (among many others), and has led to various sports chiefs requiring Russian athletes to compete under a neutral flag and without their national anthem, as is the case with the world’s number two male tennis player Daniil Medvedev.
Medvedev might even be unilaterally banned from competing at Wimbledon this summer by the All England Club, which are apparently fearful of negative PR of a Russian player potentially gaining success on English soil.
But amid the restrictions placed upon Russia and its sports stars, Matytsin says he hopes the impediments are only temporary and that they will soon be removed for the sake of sporting integrity.
“I hope that in the near future Russia will return the status of a full member of the world sports community, reason will prevail,” he said to reporters on Wednesday.
“The period is very difficult and our athletes are the most affected,” he added.
There is as yet no suggestion of when the sporting restrictions and sanctions against Russia may be loosened, with most federations imposing them “until further notice.”
In the meantime, Russian sport has focused on arranging a series of its own events for athletes under the banner ‘We Are Together. Sport’, and is seeking expanding cooperation with the likes of China and other allies.
Russia hosted a series of events in Siberia for its Paralympic athletes last month, also inviting representatives from Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.
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