The speech of Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee, confused the General Assembly of National Olympic Committees. The chairman of the Finnish Olympic Committee would not like to see something similar at international meetings.
Pertti Lappalainen,
Mika Halonen
19:08•Updated 19:23
The annual general meeting of the National Olympic Committees saw an extraordinary situation. At the ANOC (World Association of National Olympic Committees) meeting in Seoul, South Korea, among others, the representative of Denmark Hans Natorp left the place in the midst of the head of the Russian Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov speech.
During the speech, a video was shown that only showed images of youth sports events organized in Russia earlier this year.
Pozdnjakov is the chairman of ANOC’s culture and education commission.
– The video was haphazard. As president of the commission, he should report on the income angle of all countries, but now the position was used as a tool of domestic politics, the representative of the Finnish Olympic Committee at the meeting Taina Susiluoto tells Urheilu.
The corridors were bustling after the video
Susiluoto describes the atmosphere in the meeting after the video as confused.
– Yes, there was a lot of buzz in the corridors after the video. Such a meeting is not the right place to bring up national politics, especially in such a world political situation. This kind of thing should not be allowed to happen, Susuluoto emphasizes.
He says that he heard afterwards that the representatives of the individual countries left the place. Danish Olympic Committee chairman Natorp said InsideTheGames (you are moving to another service)website that watching the video was uncomfortable, so he wanted to leave the place in the middle of the show.
The situation is emphasized by the fact that Ukraine is not participating in the meeting. According to Susiluoto, no clear reason was given for Ukraine’s intervention. At least Latvia boycotted the meeting after Russia and Belarus participated.
Susiluoto says that the participation of Russia and Belarus in the meeting was already questioned for several member countries.
The agreement remained
The non-competition ban on Russia and Belarus was on display at the meeting.
– This is a prevention victory, because there were no mitigations here. We will continue with the current model, that is, Russians and Belarusians do not participate in international competitions and international competitions are not organized in these countries, says Susiluoto.
In the board of the International Olympic Committee, the right of Russians and Belarusians to compete is presented regularly.
– At the end of the year or at the beginning of next year, the government will discuss the issue again, Susiluoto estimates.
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