It started when I was reviewing the 2018 season and I tried to find a photo of the pole vault silver medalist at the 2018, Berlin, Europeans, T. Morgunov. I had trouble with this but in the end I managed to get one where the three medalists are together.
And then I had one where Duplantis and Lavillenie exhibit proudly the flags of their country.
That got me thinking. There are literally dozens of russian athletes who obtained an authorisation to participate in official competitions in athletics as Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA). This is the aftermath of the doping scandal in which the russian federation was implicated, a situation which, two years later, has not been resolved and which led to the introduction of the ANA class.
When an ANA athlete obtains a medal in the Olympic Games the olympic flag is hoisted and the olympic anthem is sounded for a gold medalist. I can understand this since the russian federation is (temporarily) banned from official competitions. But it remains that the ANA athletes are of russian nationality. Why on earth can't they celebrate their success in competition by exhibiting their national flag?
This flag thing is not as strict as the IAAF would like us to believe. When C. Freeman won the women's 400 m in the Sydney, 2000, Olympics she did celebrate her victory with both the Aborigines (her tribal ancestry) and the Australia flags.
M. Jones did the same with the Belize (her mother's country of origin) and the US flag.
While winning the 2017 World championships for men's 200 m, R. Guliyev first put the Azerbaijan (his country of origin) flag and then the one of Turkey.
(Mind you, this year, after his victory in the European's, only the turkish flag was displayed). So would that be a big deal if russian athletes were allowed to show the russian flag in the minutes following the end of the event?
I would definitely like to see a smiling M. Lasitskene displaying the russian flag after her victories in the high jump.
And then I had one where Duplantis and Lavillenie exhibit proudly the flags of their country.
That got me thinking. There are literally dozens of russian athletes who obtained an authorisation to participate in official competitions in athletics as Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA). This is the aftermath of the doping scandal in which the russian federation was implicated, a situation which, two years later, has not been resolved and which led to the introduction of the ANA class.
When an ANA athlete obtains a medal in the Olympic Games the olympic flag is hoisted and the olympic anthem is sounded for a gold medalist. I can understand this since the russian federation is (temporarily) banned from official competitions. But it remains that the ANA athletes are of russian nationality. Why on earth can't they celebrate their success in competition by exhibiting their national flag?
This flag thing is not as strict as the IAAF would like us to believe. When C. Freeman won the women's 400 m in the Sydney, 2000, Olympics she did celebrate her victory with both the Aborigines (her tribal ancestry) and the Australia flags.
M. Jones did the same with the Belize (her mother's country of origin) and the US flag.
While winning the 2017 World championships for men's 200 m, R. Guliyev first put the Azerbaijan (his country of origin) flag and then the one of Turkey.
(Mind you, this year, after his victory in the European's, only the turkish flag was displayed). So would that be a big deal if russian athletes were allowed to show the russian flag in the minutes following the end of the event?
I would definitely like to see a smiling M. Lasitskene displaying the russian flag after her victories in the high jump.
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