Not just what's happening in and around the Olympic Movement and International Sports but what it all means.

 

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The Russians are not coming to Milano-Cortina. After that? LA28?

MILAN — These Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Games, which opened Friday night to ceremonies across northern Italy, including a traditional and spectacular show at the iconic San Siro stadium in Milan, would seem the last at which the Russians are not coming. 

At least under their flag, anthem, colors, all that.

To be clear: the war in Ukraine is horrific, the carnage almost unimaginable, the toll upon thousands upon thousands of lives immeasurable. All of it is awful beyond words, cause for profound heartache.

The issue the war - any war - presents in an Olympic context is essential: should an athlete be responsible for what his or her government does? If so, why?

IOC 'new norm' and what 'uncomfortable' next steps await
IOC 'new norm' and what 'uncomfortable' next steps await

MILAN — Perhaps the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Games will be prove a welcome distraction.

The International Olympic Committee could use it.

The IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, in a news conference at the end of the group’s Milan assembly, said it is “at a pivoting point.”

Challenges with both the Olympic business model and the human resources culture in Lausanne and perhaps beyond now seem to be surfacing at multiple levels and at a rapid pace. That would suggest symptoms of way bigger issues.

Insider "systematic theft" of $1.75 million shakes World Athletics
Track and field
Insider "systematic theft" of $1.75 million shakes World Athletics
Track and field

Insiders at World Athletics are believed to have stolen about $1.75 million over “a period of several years,” prompting the federation to pursue criminal cases while launching “a set of enhanced internal financial controls,” it said in a statement.

The federation said it discovered the “systemic theft” earlier this year. The focus, it said in the statement, centers on two former employees and a contracted consultant. At issue: fake or doctored invoices.

One of the two ex-employees left before the theft was discovered. The other, and the consultant, “had their contracts terminated,” the federation said in that statement, offered in response to an inquiry about the matter.

Track and field
The Olympic Charter is clear: all means all
IOC
The Olympic Charter is clear: all means all
IOC

The immediate past president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, served for 12 years with this elegant guiding notion: “unity in diversity.”\

Six years ago, Bach wrote a column published in The Guardian, the British newspaper, that read, in part: “The Olympic Games cannot prevent wars and conflicts. Nor can they address all the political and social challenges in our world. But they can set an example for a world where everyone respects the same rules and one another.”

The new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, elected in March, faces enormous challenge in delivering on the aspirational promise of the Olympics that Bach articulated so eloquently. 

IOC
The Olympic system under threat - from Indonesia - and what IOC should do
IOC
The Olympic system under threat - from Indonesia - and what IOC should do
IOC

That mission is at grave risk because the government of Indonesia is not allowing a six-member Israeli team to compete in the world gymnastics championships due to begin next week in Jakarta.

The IOC’s mission then is the mission now: to put sport at the  “service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity,” as it says in the Olympic Charter. 

IOC
The gymnastics championships must be moved out of Indonesia
The gymnastics championships must be moved out of Indonesia

The Olympic Charter is very clear.

It says, point 5, “Recognizing that sport occurs within the framework of society, sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality.”

As matters stand, the Israeli team is unable to compete at the gymnastics world championships - due to begin Oct. 19 - in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. 

Why? The government of Indonesia has denied visas to a six-person Israeli delegation amid the war with Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli team includes Artem Dolgopyat, who won the floor exercise at both the 2020 Olympics and 2023 worlds; he took silver in Paris in 2024.  

This is just wrong. 

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About Alan Abrahamson

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Alan Abrahamson is an award-winning sportswriter, best-selling author and in-demand television analyst. In 2010, he launched his own website, 3 Wire Sports, described in James Patterson and Mark Sullivan's 2012 best-selling novel Private Games as "the world's best source of information about the [Olympic] Games and the culture that surrounds them." Read full bio.

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