The Current - Could Russia return to the Olympics?

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Pressure is mounting to allow Russian athletes compete at the Olympics under the Russian flag. Reporter Georgi Kantchev with Wall Street Journal is in Italy, he'll take us through what the International Olympic Committee has been saying. We'll also hear from Bruce Berglund, historian and author, about how Russia has used sport as a political tool.

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find two blocks from the White House every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. including YouTube. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. Russia is once again missing from the Olympic Games, but despite not being able to compete under their own flag, Russian-born athletes are finding ways to participate in a wide range of sports in Italy. Russia has faced numerous sanctions and bans from the Olympics for almost a decade.

First, after the Sochi Winter Games, because of a state-run doping scandal, then following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But now it looks like the International Olympic Committee could be getting ready to welcome Russia back. Here's the organization's president, Kirsty Coventry, in Milan last week. We are a sports organization.

Our game is sport. That means keeping sport a neutral ground, a place where every athlete can compete freely without being held back. by the politics or divisions of their governments. For more on what this could mean, I'm joined by Georgi Kanshev. He's a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, and we've reached him at the Winter Games in Milan.

Georgi, hello. Hi there. We just heard from the president of the IOC there, signaling that the Olympics could be opening the door for Russian athletes to compete again under the Russian flag. How is that being received? That's obviously quite a controversial situation. It's been going on for a number of years now since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

And of course, right now the war is still continuing. The Russian athletes are still technically banned, but they do appear in some fashion the games. Ultimately, we saw what happened yesterday with the Ukrainian athlete who was banned for basically wearing a helmet that was kind of honoring the war dead. So this is a very controversial situation. That's happened in previous games too. But of course, the question is how the IOC played from here on. And of course, this is going to depend a lot on the development on the front line,

but also in the way sports federations decide. We'll get to that Ukrainian athlete in a moment here. But I am curious, what is the reasoning behind why the IOC would change its tone right now? There are several reasons. First of all, the ILC leadership and other federations, too, other associations, FIFA, of course, and with World Soccer and others, they usually claim, and that's the narrative, is that they want to keep politics out of sports. So that's number one. And all these bands that were instituted, they want to kind of get. past that and continue having sports as a neutral ground, so to speak. Then, of course, this pressure from Russia itself. And, you know, we shouldn't forget that Russia is a sports power with very serious traditions in sports, one of the biggest Olympic countries in history with most medals,

the Soviet Union and the Russia in recent history. So there's, of course, a desire to bring back some of the world top talent, poor Russians. previous games, the Russian team used to be 300, 400 people. So we're talking about huge amount of sporting talent here. So there is this desire to normalize the games to bring back the talent. And there is also like, you know, ultimately, there are some countries that are aligned with Russia. They're also pressure for that. So there's a lot of pressure coming from all sides. And that's why IOC needs to decide at some point. Okay. So you think there is some political motivation behind it as well? Ultimately, we shouldn't forget that this is happening.

at a time when, you know, there's been a certain realignment or at least towing of the relationship between the U.S. and Russia too. There's been, of course, with the Trump administration, there's been more contacts between Washington and Moscow. So that also happens against the background of less Chile, put it this way, less chile relationship between the U.S. and Russia. So that also plays into the fact politics are part of it, but of course. sports is not affected. Okay. How does, how has Ukraine responded to all of this then? Well, very negatively, as you can imagine, for the past four years, they've been advocating against Russia participating in any sports under any form, and they've succeeded in many cases.

Russia in Paris, the Paris Olympics in 2024 and now in Milan, is not appearing under its flag, under its name, and there's only a handful of athletes. that are appearing from Russia. So that has succeeded to some extent, but Ukrainians, of course, want to keep pressuring that until there's some kind of a settlement on the battlefield that was to continue. And how is it that there are still a handful of Russian athletes

who can compete if they're neutral athletes? What does that mean? How do they get that categorization? So before 2022, as you mentioned, there was this big doping scandal. And in the 2018, 2021, and 2022 games, Russia did appear as a team, but not on the Russian name. It was called Olympic athletes from Russia or a Russian Olympic Committee, but they were on the medals table, and they

had a big delegation. After the war, the IOC came up with this new way of kind of signifying these athletes. They had to pass very serious vetting that these athletes have nothing to do with the war. They have not supported the war. They have no military links. Because in Russia, A lot of the athletes have links quite often to police forces, to military, they're sponsored, or are part of various state clubs. So a very small amount of Russian athletes actually managed to pass that muster. We're talking around a dozen at these Olympics. And those were called international, you know, neutral athletes, basically. So they are appearing not as Russia.

There's no Russian anthem, there's no Russian flag. They're not even appearing on the medal table for every. any medals they win, but it just is kind of neutral athletes. And that's a change, a big change, from what it was before 2020. Russia at least had a team, while it wasn't called Russia. There was a Russian team. Right. And we do see Russian athletes moving elsewhere to compete. Absolutely. So that's the other thing is that for years, and this is not new, of course, in sports, it's quite common for athletes to compete for our countries. So that has happened quite often. But since the Volska invasion in 2022, there's been a number of,

Russian athletes that had to quickly change nationalities and so they can appear for our countries and these games and also in Paris as well. There have been dozens such cases. The Milan Olympics, we know, of around 40 athletes who have, who are born in Russia, but appearing now on the different flags.

So we're talking about 13, no, individual neutral athletes from Russia, but then you have this other contingent, at least 40 others who are born in Russia. Right. I do want to talk about that Ukrainian skeleton racer, you mentioned. Vladislav Harriskevich, disqualified for wearing a helmet that paid tribute to the Ukrainian athletes who have been killed in the war. I want to have a listen here to what he had to say. I disagree with this decision because I truly believe that we didn't violate any rules.

Rule 50, political propaganda, discriminational propaganda or racial propaganda is definitely not about this helmet. So the IOC says that it is, quote, a fundamental. fundamental principle that the games be separate from political, religious, and any other type of interference. What's been the reaction to the decision about this Ukrainian athlete? The reaction has been pretty strong, especially coming from the Ukrainian side, of course. The Ukrainian president, Rodimir Zelensky, actually blasted IUC yesterday in some posts on X, you know, saying that the Olympic movement should help stop wars and not playing the hands of the grassroots. he awarded the athlete, the Order of Freedom.

And crucially, Zelensky also said that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 660 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed by Russia in the war. That's the numbers that Zelensky cited. So, of course, there's been also others piling in on X, kind of criticizing the decision, but the IOC has stood firm. The one thing they did do is they allowed the Ukrainian athletes. to stay at the games so he can have his accretation and he can be here physically, but he cannot compete. Okay, Georgi, thank you very much for making time for us.

Thank you. Georgi Conchev is a reporter with the Wall Street Journal. If you're worried about feeling lonely in the afterlife, why not hire a corpse bride? In Lindsay Wong's new novel, a grad student becomes a corpse bride to pay off her family's debt. If that sounds made up, think again. Here's what Lindsay told me on my podcast, bookends. In Chinese culture, there's this idea of an arranged deaf marriage.

It's called Ming Hun. And so sometimes we'll just try to find another dead body or they'll try to find a living person. Usually a marginalized person, they'll kill them and put them in a coffin. Check out the rest of that conversation on bookends with me, Matea Roach, wherever you get your podcasts. Now, the International Olympics Committee isn't the only sports organization looking at lifting its ban on Russia. FIFA President Gianni Infantino made similar comments about soccer competitions in the last week. I think we have to look at it because this ban has not achieved anything. It has just created more frustration and hatred.

And I feel that having girls and boys from Russia being able to play football games in other parts of Europe would help. We should actually never ban any country from playing football because of the acts of their political leaders. As these shifts in the sporting world start to take place, what's at stake for Russia? So to help us answer that question, I'm joined by Bruce Bergland. He's an historian of Russia and Europe and the author of the new book, The Moscow Playbook, How Russia Used, Abused, and Transformed Sports in the Hunt for Power. Bruce, good morning. Good morning, Rebecca.

Why would the IOC and FIFA be interested in having Russia back? The IOC and FIFA have historically wanted Russia in the games despite years and decades in which Russia and before that the Soviet Union have broken the rules of international competition and then have deceived the governing bodies about their cheating essentially. yet, you know, the governing bodies see it as essential to have Russia in the game. As Georgi said, Russia sends a lot of athletes to these competitions. But there's also the matter of, you know, something I found in my research is the money of that, that Russia contributes to these governing bodies. And it's not insignificant. So that's part of the equation as well.

Is it a bigger piece of the pie per capita than other countries? I don't know about that in terms of the funding. You know, the biggest contributor to the International Olympic Committee is the NBC network in the United States, the broadcast contracts that NBC makes to broadcast the Olympics in the U.S. But it's not an insignificant sum. And in the interviews I did, I was struck that this is something that is important. I was thinking the answer was more in terms of politics, but the people I interviewed, came back to money. Interesting. So do you think we could see them Russian athletes competing under

their own flag in the next games in 2028? Oh, I think that will definitely happen. Yeah, I think that will definitely be the case. I think by the, you know, if the war is still going on in Ukraine, you know, there's already a sense of, in media in the world at large in politics, right, this sense of the war as a everyday part of the background of international affairs. And as Giorgi was saying within the governing bodies, they want to normalize international sport, and that means bringing Russia back into the games. And how difficult is it to lift a ban? Is it just as simple as them signing on the dotted line and away they go? That's a good question, right? We have had that before of countries being banned. So Germany after World War II was banned. Of course, you had the ban

against South Africa during the apartheid era. So yes, it will amount to that athletes will be invited Again, there is the specific mechanics of qualifications within the different federations. But the Sports Federation, you know, keep in mind the International Olympic Committee works with the federations that govern the individual sports. And so each federation has its rules in terms of how to bring Russian athletes and bring Russian teams back into competition. I know you've written a lot about why the Olympics and these other international sporting events are so important to Russia. but why does Russia care so much about being involved in this? Yeah, that's a great question. You know, this goes back to the Soviet Union.

So the Soviet Union was first involved in the Olympics in 1952. And right from the start, the Olympics and international sport were a political project for Soviet leaders in Moscow. They wanted their athletes to go abroad and to win to show the superiority of the Soviet system, of communism and so forth. And now in the post-Soviet period, especially under Vladimir Putin, there's still this political goal of sending Russian athletes abroad to demonstrate the strength of Russia to demonstrate not only to international audiences, but also to domestic audiences, right, to show Russia is a strong, successful, affluent country. And to do this, they not only host events in Russia, but also send their athletes abroad to win. You actually wrote back in 2022 that the ban after Russia's invasion of Ukraine was, and these are your words, necessary to take away one of Putin's most reliable political tools and further isolate him internationally. Did we see that then?

Yes. Well, we do see that. So in looking at Russian media, it is interesting how, you know, going back to the quote you played by Gianni Infantino, where he says the ban has accomplished nothing. The ban has accomplished something in Russian. You know, in reading, especially the reader's comments on Russian sports sites, readers have this sense of, you know, we're blocked from international sport. We, the Russians, are blocked from international sport because of the policies of our leaders. And they can't refer to Putin by name, of course. They use euphemisms like the management. It's because of the management.

We're in this situation. And when you look at these readers' comments, you do see a lot. of anger, a lot of steam coming out from Russian fans about the situation they're in and that they can't watch their athletes participate in international events. You know, back to the sporting question, because the IOC will say the reason they want them back is because, you know, you better the field of competition. Is, I mean, is that true? Do we, do we see that the games suffer as a result of not having the Russians there? Is the play the game not as good right now?

Will it, let's take an example of, you know, the favorite sport in Russia is hockey. Is the hockey tournament diminished by, you know, is when we watch Canada play the United States or Canada play Sweden, are we thinking in the backs of our minds, well, this is really good hockey, but boy, I wish the Russians were here. That would make for a much better game. I would say no, it's not diminished. And to give an example, Georgi was talking about in 2018,

you had this, you know, so-called Olympic athletes from Russia team that competed in the Olympics in South Korea. They won the gold medal. They went back to the Kremlin. They were received by Putin. And in no way did they say,

oh, you know, this was not really a true gold medal because the NHL players weren't playing. So, no, we're going to see fantastic competition. and like Aorgie said, you see a lot of Russian athletes who have gotten the passports of other countries and are competing in one way or another. We've heard from our other guests that behind the scenes, you know, there are some political motivations of the IOC to bring back Russia. One of them he suggested was the Trump administration and the close ties between Russia and that administration. So is there sway happening behind the scenes where Russia is suggesting that, they really need to be back and the IOC is buying into that?

I don't think it's so much cooperation between the Russians and the Trump administration. What I've seen, the pattern, and I found this in my research for my book, the pattern that has taken place all the way from the 50s to today, is Moscow puts pressure on the IOC, and any pushback from the IOC against the Russians is. is then countered with the charge that the IOC is being political. If there's anything that members of the IOC and really all of the governing bodies in Switzerland hate, it's being charged with the claim that they're political, that they're acting in some political way. And Moscow has just been very, they've just been very skilled in using the apolitical stance of the governing bodies,

especially the IOC, using that as a weapon to defend themselves against any charges that, for instance, their athletes are doping or they're covering up doping. What about the athletes themselves, the ones who may still be competing, not under the Russian flag necessarily, but under the neutral zone that they're able to compete? What are we hearing from them about all of this conversation, or are they waiting in at all? You don't typically hear athletes who are at the games presently, you know, talking about the situation. There was a, you know, there have been interviews with Russian athletes who've talked about the situation there in since the start of the invasion in 2022. There was a terrific interview that was done by a Russian journalist.

It's on YouTube with two Russian tennis players. One is Andre Rublev, the well-known, you know, the top-ranked men's player. And he was training and living in Barcelona. And one of the questions that came up was, you know, for himself, but especially for younger players, for teenage players who are coming up, they have to deal with the possibility that if they want a career in pro tennis, they're going to have to look at getting a passport for another country. And so this is, I would say it's an awareness that that especially young, talented Russian athletes have that if they want to continue their careers and, and. compete at the top level, they do have to look at where are they going to get their passport from. You mentioned that other countries have face bans in the past, Germany and South Africa,

and certainly the Ukraine war is not the only conflict going on right now. So where is the line of which countries face bans in the sporting world? And do you think the IOC ever considers others right now? Yeah, that is a terrific question. No, the IOC does not like bans at all. The IOC does not like bans. So the present ban that came up after the start of the war in Ukraine, this is something that was really generated from athletes, and particular on the side of FIFA. It was the Polish national team, the Czech national football team, the Swedish national team, and their players told FIFA, we are not playing against Russian in the World Cup qualifiers.

So this is not something that the IOC or FIFA wants is any kind of bans. The big fear, and this is something that when I was doing research in the IOC archives, the big fear that IOC officials have, and you see this with other governing bodies, is they don't want a repeat of the 1980 boycott when Canada, the United States, and some 60 other countries did not send athletes to the Summer Olympics in Moscow. The governing bodies see this as an absolute low point in the history of the Olympics and international sport, and they don't want anything like that again. And so if the IOC says they're trying to make the sport more neutral,

and yet we have this Ukrainian competitor wanting to wear a helmet and we see sometimes athletes make certain signals or symbols from the podium, I mean, can we really separate sports and politics? The answer is no. When we watch the Olympics, we're watching athletes come into the stadium and compete, representing nation states. They come into the stadium under flags. They stand at the podium under their flags. They listen to the national anthem. All of those are political symbols. So the very nature of how the Olympics is structured brings politics in. So back to your question, where do you draw the line?

The Olympics are already mixed with politics. And so it's unfortunate, it's tragic that in the case of Eriskevich that the IOC interpreted his statement of remembrance as a political statement. Okay. Bruce Bergland, we have to leave it there. Thank you for this. Thank you so much, Rebecca. Bruce Bergland is an historian of Russia and Europe and the author of the new book, The Moscow Playbook, How Russia Used, Abused, and transformed sports in the Hunt for Power. You've been listening to the current podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca slash podcasts.