I agree with this in principle, but the way they were allowed to compete as the “Russian Olympic Committee” was bullshit. You can’t have a team called “totally not Russia (wink)” and expect that to be a meaningful punishment for the nations leaders
I think the athletes should only be able to compete as citizens of the world with no reference or acknowledgement of the banned country allowed.
That will never work as long as they’re the only country in that situation. They would need to be mixed with athletes from other unrelated countries for this to make sense.
The point isn’t to disguise them. The point is to call attention to their country’s misdeeds by refusing them the honor of flying their colors. Perhaps the individual athletes should still win medals, but the IOC wouldn’t assign the credit to Russia, who would not be eligible for them.
I agree with this in principle, but the way they were allowed to compete as the “Russian Olympic Committee” was bullshit. You can’t have a team called “totally not Russia (wink)” and expect that to be a meaningful punishment for the nations leaders
I think the athletes should only be able to compete as citizens of the world with no reference or acknowledgement of the banned country allowed.
That will never work as long as they’re the only country in that situation. They would need to be mixed with athletes from other unrelated countries for this to make sense.
The point isn’t to disguise them. The point is to call attention to their country’s misdeeds by refusing them the honor of flying their colors. Perhaps the individual athletes should still win medals, but the IOC wouldn’t assign the credit to Russia, who would not be eligible for them.