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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) disqualified Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych before his first run at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy for wearing a 'helmet of memory' honouring Ukrainian athletes killed by russia's full-scale war.
@EugeneMcParland Unrelated, you may say - but here is a completely different take by IOC, this time their official merchandising.
You can't make that up.
https://www.dw.com/en/olympics-t-shirt-marking-1936-berlin-games-raises-eyebrows/a-75909285
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By example, the international sporting ban imposed on South Africa contributed to the end of apartheid, but would it have had the same impact if every other nation had been prevented from playing alongside SA?
@ReggieHere
Fair point. What I was suggesting is that if "everyone" was prevented from competition, there would be massive pressure to end war/ genocide/ apartheid etc. And as a nice side effect, it removes the propaganda effect of the spectacle until that happens.But yeah, I know money rules and that people can never fully agree on anything so it would never happen. @lerxst @EugeneMcParland
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@ReggieHere
Fair point. What I was suggesting is that if "everyone" was prevented from competition, there would be massive pressure to end war/ genocide/ apartheid etc. And as a nice side effect, it removes the propaganda effect of the spectacle until that happens.But yeah, I know money rules and that people can never fully agree on anything so it would never happen. @lerxst @EugeneMcParland
I like the idea, and I think the criteria for banning countries from sporting events could certainly be applied far more fairly than it has been of late (some wars are deemed more worthy of a ban than others). I'm just not sure that nations who invade other nations would care overly about international opprobrium arising from sports when they're also being accused of war crimes.
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How can the Olympics say he can't honour Ukraine heroes of the war because "it's political" when they themselves have banned Russia because of their invasion of Ukraine! Surely that is political too!
@monkeyben @EugeneMcParland Then why is everyone allowed to wave flags? Countries are inherently political. What they mean is "don't do anything that'll affect our sponsor's brand images".
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