Olympic Games 2018: Sports Committee Chairman Freitag sharply criticises IOC

Dagmar Freitag, former chairwoman of the Sports Committee in the German Bundestag, has sharply criticized the Russian decision of the IOC on ZDF. In a contribution to the sports report, the SPD politician said:”The ethical values that sport is supposed to embody and convey obviously do not play a major role for this IOC with its president. What is now on the table as a ten-point program is not worth the paper on which it is written.”

The IOC had excluded Russia from the Winter Games in Pyeongchang at the beginning of December due to the state-sponsored doping manipulation, but wants to allow the country’s athletes who are not involved in the scandal to start as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” after individual case studies. The Russian President Vladimir Putin had declared that there would be no boycott of the games.

Friday assumes that the IOC has made arrangements with Russia:”I think this is the concession that has already been made in advance. of Vladimir Putin’s comparatively moderate reaction.”

The reintegration of the Russian NOK and the participation of the Russians as an independent team at the closing ceremony in Pyeongchang, as promised by the IOC, would be unacceptable for Friday:”That would be sheer derision. According to all we know, it was state-organised, not just tolerated doping. A sophisticated system over the years.”

“And now rewarding good behaviour by saying that they can be under their flag and in their national team clothing at the closing ceremony in the stadium again would be a mockery to all clean athletes and those who are committed to it,”she added.

IOC President Thomas Bach has, according to Freitag, once again unmasked himself on the question of Russia, said Freitag,”we know that Thomas Bach is doing everything he can to go his way in order to get as little nasty as possible.

The Causa Russia shows that he himself in this matter, which attacks the Olympic sport and the Olympic idea in essence and destroys that he himself lavish there. It has nothing to do with the zero-tolerance policy, which he likes to promote.”

Bach had declared that the sanctions would put an end to the Russian causa. Friday sees things differently:”There can be no end to it. And we know that the IOC and its commissions have by no means acknowledged what is on the table. Not only the public has a right to it, but, I repeat, every athlete who achieves his or her performance solely through talent and training has a right to have such systems consistently sanctioned and to have everything put on the table. Otherwise, the sport breaks down.”