Olympic Movement is really ‘in its decline,’ says Russian Olympic chief Pozdnyakov

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, September 11. /TASS/. The Olympic Movement is in its decline nowadays, President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov said on Wednesday.
“The obvious proof that the Olympic Movement is really in its decline, is that within such relatively short period of time there was a transformation of ideals, traditions, as well as an utter disregard of all traditions,” he said.
“This is not because of us [Russia] not taking part, but because of such developments, which undermine the essence and meaning of everything,” the Russian Olympic chief noted referring to two female boxers at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics who earlier failed gender tests.
Lin Yu Ting of Chinese Taipei took the gold medal in the women’s 57kg weight class in the boxing event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, while Imane Khelif of Algeria won the women’s 66kg weight class event. Both athletes had been disqualified from the 2023 World Championship after failing gender tests.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stated that the organization cleared both of the boxers based on what had been stated in their national passports. The IOC’s decision to allow them to compete in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics provoked an outcry from the sporting community.
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games were hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed a team of 15 Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics as neutrals.
The Russian team’s lineup for the 2024 Olympics included tennis players Daniil Medvedev, Pavel Kotov, Roman Safiullin, Yekaterina Alexandrova, Mirra Andreeva, Diana Shnider, Yelena Vesnina; canoeists Zakhar Petrov, Alexey Korovashkov, Olesya Romasenko; swimmer Yevgeny Somov; cyclists Tamara Dronova, Alyona Ivanchenko, Gleb Syritsa; and Anzhela Bladtseva, who competes in trampoline event.
Team USA finished the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in the top of the medal standings having packed 126 medals (40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze), leaving in 2nd place China with 91 medals (40 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze) and Japan with 45 medals (20 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze).
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board convened for a meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20 and following the opening day it decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in the Parade of Athletes and also exclude them from the 2024 Olympics overall medal standings.
The IOC, however, ruled that Russian athletes, cleared to participate in the 2024 Olympics, would not have to sign anything denouncing their country’s special military operation in Ukraine.
On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.
The Swiss-based CAS registered on November 6, 2023 an appeal from the ROC against the IOC’s decision on the Russian governing Olympic body’s suspension.
The suspension meant that the ROC cannot act as a national Olympic committee or receive financing from the Olympic movement. The IOC however reserved the right to clear Russian athletes to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 as neutrals. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach said that Russian athletes should have no affiliation with the ROC if they want to compete at the Olympic Games.