Sometimes sports are more than just . . . well, sports. After all, American hockey fans will never forget the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, and the famous “Miracle on Ice.” It was great hockey, to be sure, but it’s remembered more as a moment when the U.S. was able to reach past a series of foreign policy failures in Afghanistan and Iran and—for once—notch a victory.
A similar mindset has reappeared in the world of Russian athletics in the past week. On Friday, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) voted unanimously to uphold a ban on Russian track and field athletes participating in international competitions. The original ban, imposed by the international body after the discovery of widespread state-sponsored doping last November, allowed for Russia to petition for readmission prior to the Olympics.
While doping has become an endemic problem in many upper-level athletics, Russia’s attitude towards the problem sets it apart. According to the IAAF, doping in Russia is a systemic problem, which justifies the punitive actions.
“The deep-seated culture of tolerance, or worse, for doping that got Russian Athletics suspended appears not have changed,” said Rune Andersen, chairman of the IAAF task force entrusted with evaluating Russian eligibility.
For the IAAF, the issue is sports. Russian reactions, however, have taken even the prospect of a ban much more personally. Statements prior to the announcement of the ban framed the controversy as an unjust exclusion by colluding European powers.
Last week, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, called the doping accusations “absolute slander. Vitaly Mutko, the minister of sports, described the allegations against Russian athletes as a “political hit job” and accused critics of anti-Russia bias.
“Russia’s [doping] problems are no worse than other countries,” Mutko said. “Whatever we do, it’s always bad.”
At a St. Petersburg economic forum, Putin himself argued that Russia had been unfairly targeted in the doping ban, saying that performance-enhancing drugs, “cannot be a foundation for building anti-Russia policy.”
The statement released after the IAAF’s judgment rang differently, though. “Nothing can justify anything that can harm human health. That is why we fought and will continue to fight against doping at the state level,” Putin said in a statementemphasizing his commitment to fair play in Russian athletics.
For Russia, the issue appears to be viewed as a political snub rather than a matter of sportsmanship and fair play. It’s an attitude that is not restricted to the doping issue. When Russia played England in a contentious Euro 2016 soccer match on June 11, riots broke out in Marseilles between groups of opposing fans who hurled insults and seized makeshift weapons from nearby cafes before police used tear gas to quell the violence. The French prefect for the region then signed deportation orders for 20 Russian fans.
Sadly, most sports have their share of fans willing to use the outcome of a match as a thin excuse for violence. However, Russian soccer fans, like Russian authorities, seem to view the deportation order as a political act rather than a matter of public safety.
Alexander Shprygin, the leader of the All-Russian Union of Fans and one of those deported, was blunt in his description of his removal.
“We consider it a political decision,” he said.
The issue is clouded by the Kremlin’s perceived backing of the club. The Wall Street Journal reports that according to the All-Russian Union of Fans, the Russian Sports Ministry and Soccer Union helped the club organize a charter flight before the game.
In France, UEFA issued the Russian team a suspended disqualification, warning that further violence on the part of fans would result in the team’s immediate removal from the tournament. But in Russia, the violence was looked upon with far less severity. Speaking at an economic forum, Putin joked about the affair.
“I don’t know how 200 Russian fans managed to crush several thousand English,” the Russian president said.
That’s not a comment about sporting ability. It rings more like a boast of a military victory and speaks to the growing sense that Russia sees itself as engaged in a struggle against the west—on and off the field. If so, Russia will have a much harder time winning medals and proving political points with the bulk of its track and field athletes suspended.
