Thirteen Russians to parade with their flag at Dakar Youth Games
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on The Namibian
The participation of 13 Russian athletes at the Dakar Youth Olympics, with their flag and anthem, is reviving the debate over sports neutrality during wartime. IOC president Kirsty Coventry defends separating sport and politics, while Ukraine’s Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi opposes it, AFP reports.
Thirteen Russian athletes will parade with their country’s flag and hear the national anthem at the Dakar Youth Olympic Games, which begin on Saturday, AFP reports. It will be the first time this has happened at an Olympic competition since the Lausanne Winter Youth Olympics in 2020.
The decision will test the determination of Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, to keep sport separate from political confrontations. Russia and Ukraine will take part alongside each other in the Games, while the two countries have been at war since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Ukraine’s Sports Minister, Matviy Bidnyi, opposes the return of Russian athletes to international competitions before the end of the war, the establishment of a just peace, the return of abducted Ukrainian children and the restoration of international law. By contrast, former IOC marketing executive Terrence Burns believes that sport has never been separated from politics, while defending the Olympic movement’s independence from governments.
The Russian participation comes as delegations taking part in the Dakar Youth Olympic Games arrive in Dakar, including Mali’s swimming delegation, which had already arrived in the Senegalese capital on 30 October. It follows new Russian strikes in Ukraine that killed at least 20 people on 29 October, according to a toll already reported.
