South Korea Olympic Committee Begs Russian Athletes Not to Boycott the Winter Games in Pyeongchang

The Russian athletes’ performance under the neutral flag requires painstaking and hard work with the International Olympic Committee. There are many technical issues, including financial ones, that require clarification.

The Russian athletes’ performance under the neutral flag requires painstaking and hard work with the International Olympic Committee. There are many technical issues, including financial ones, that require clarification. This was announced today by presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. And South Korea itself made an appeal to do everything to make Russia come to the Games.

Our observer Tatyana Remezova is now in the studio.

 

- Tatiana, what’s new?

- Ernest, there's a lot.

Firstly, Seoul is so shocked by the IOC’s decision that it stated that they’re very much looking forward to seeing Russia at the Olympics. Tickets for competitions are selling poorly, and the absence of the strong Russian team is a blow to the spectators.

Then, Pyongyang made it worse. The war on the Korean Peninsula is inevitable. The DPRK is furious that South Korea added the costs of liquidating Kim Jong-un to the military budget.

Nikki Haley, the US permanent representative to the UN, was also taken aback. She couldn’t answer whether the American team would go to the Olympics.

Nikki Haley: "The question is still open. I haven’t heard anything concrete so far, but we’re constantly discussing how to protect American citizens in that region. It depends on the situation in Korea at any particular moment".

- And what is the reaction in Russia after the President unequivocally spoke out against the boycott of the Games?

- In general, emotions are inferior to constructivism. The meeting of the government started with this today. The president signed a decree associating the anti-doping center with Moscow State University, and the work is being carried out jointly with the WADA.

Dmitry Medvedev: "This will help to better fulfill the requirements regarding the financial and administrative independence of the future national anti-doping laboratory. I hope that this will also improve the overall quality of anti-doping tests, since they will be performed at one of the best universities that has everything that may be needed in this respect".

Dmitry Medvedev: "Both disqualified and allowed sportsmen will receive full support. Of course, those who will be invited will have to decide for themselves whether to go to the Olympics. No one, neither the Federation nor officials have the right to tell them what to do. This is their personal choice. As far as the Government is concerned, let me assure you that the athletes have our support no matter what they decide. Those who will go to the Olympics will have our usual support as Russian athletes, and we will also support those who were deprived of this possibility. The Government needs to draft proposals on ways of supporting them".

The head of the doping testing independent group, France’s former minister of sports Valerie Fourneyron, promises to compile the lists of admitted Russians by the end of January. The composition of her commission is known, but the criteria aren’t very clear. An athlete is called clean if they’ve never been caught on doping, but the final decision will be made by the IOC. The main concern is that they can deliberately knock out the strong ones to hurt our final results.

- What about hockey? Can our team go?

The decision of the IOC allows us to perform as a team. It’s clear that without the NHL players and without the Russians from the Continental League, hockey will turn into a youth get-together. The maestros are sure that they should go.

Boris Mikhailov, two-times Olympic Hockey Champion. "Thus, we’ll prove that we’re strong in spirit, we can’t be beaten, whatever the enemy does to us in political and sports terms. We’re united, and this case will unite us, our country, even more. The Olympic movement without Russia is a bird with one wing".

Vyacheslav Bykov, two-time Olympic Hockey Champion. "An additional motivation is to prove to everyone that we’re a pure country and we’re one of the nations that are the flagship of world sport".

Of course, the doors aren’t closing for us, and after Pyeongchang, this story will hopefully come to an end once and for all.

- Thank you, Tatyana. It was our observer, Tatyana Remezova.