Meeting
with Russia’s Olympic team
July
27, 2016
15:15
The Kremlin,
Moscow
Meeting with Russia’s Olympic team.
More
than 100 athletes took part in the meeting, both those who will
compete in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and those who
were banned from taking part, and more than 40 coaches, doctors,
and other specialists accompanying the team.
* *
*
President
of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon friends.
It
is now an excellent and well-established tradition to meet with
the Russian team before they leave to take part
in the Olympics. On the eve of such an important
sports event, it is indeed essential to have the country’s moral
support and solidarity, to receive our good words and feelings
and know that the whole country is behind you and with you all
the way.
The farewell
ceremony of the national Olympic team is different this year. You
know what I am talking about. I will say a few words
on this now.
All
of you here trained long and hard over the last four years
to get ready for this big event, and you all deserved
the right to defend Russia’s sporting honour. Sadly, not all
of you will have the chance to make your dreams come true
in Rio.
We
see that short-sighted politicians have started meddling in sport too,
though sport was supposed to bring peoples together and smooth over
the differences between countries. This current situation has gone beyond
the legal pale now and has even gone beyond the bounds of common
sense.
This
campaign that targets our country’s athletes includes the use
of notorious double standards and the principle
of collective responsibility, or, as was said, “reversal
of the presumption of innocence”, which is not compatible with
sport and not compatible with justice and basic legal norms
in general. We get the impression that those who speak this way do
not even understand what they are saying.
Not
only have many of our athletes suffered from these allegations made
against them for which – I want to stress – there is
not the slightest concrete evidence, but this has dealt a blow
to global sport in general and to the Olympic Games.
Everyone
realises, after all, that the absence of Russian athletes, who are
leaders in many sports disciplines, will reduce significantly
the level of competition and thus take some
of the thrill and interest out of the upcoming Games.
I want to assure you that we here in Russia will look
at our athletes who are leaders in their disciplines as Olympic
champions with all the administrative and material consequences this
entails.
I am
sure that your colleagues from other leading sports powers around
the world understand, even if they do not say so aloud, that
the medals’ quality and level will be different.
It
is one thing to win in competition with your equals, with strong
rivals, after all, and quite another thing to compete against
athletes clearly not of your level. Such a victory does not have
the same taste and is perhaps even quite tasteless.
At a meeting with Russia’s Olympic team.
As I said,
this affair threatens to discredit the very principles
of equality, fairness, mutual respect and the rights
of ‘clean’ athletes. Essentially, this is an attempt to revise
the ideas on which Pierre de Coubertin built the modern Olympic
Games.
The International
Olympic Committee, as you know, despite the tremendous pressure it
was under and the very negative media environment that was created
as if on command, did not bring division into the Olympic movement
and left it up to the international federations
in the different sports to decide whether or not
to allow athletes to participate. True, with only days remaining
before the Games begin, we still do not know for sure how many
of our athletes will go to Rio, and this uncertainty also has
an impact on their training and preparedness, of course.
We
cannot agree with the blanket disqualification of our track
and field athletes who have, I want to stress,
an absolutely clean doping record. We will not and cannot accept this
kind of open discrimination. This goes completely against the Olympic
movement’s principles. But we will fight for justice exclusively through
legal means and will act in strict accordance with the Olympic
Charter. I am sure the Russian Olympic Committee will continue
to defend our athletes’ interests.
Russia
will prove through its acts its commitment to the principles
of clean and fair competition and our readiness for genuine
partnership with the international sports community to combat doping.
We will not only ensure that all involved in doping scandals are held
accountable, no matter what their rank and services, but, most
importantly, will establish an effective system to prevent doping
in sport in accordance with the national plan for preventing
doping, which we are already working on now.
You
already know that the independent commission set up just recently under
the direction of honorary member of the IOC Vitaly Smirnov
will work in closest cooperation with the relevant international
organisations and will organise its work in the most transparent
and unbiased fashion. At the same time, we hope that all members
of the global Olympic family will follow the same principle.
Let’s
be frank: all countries encounter problems with doping, but we sometimes have
the impression that demands and oversight differ for different
countries’ athletes. It is as if someone wants to divide sportspeople
into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’ and obtain competitive advantages that do
not conform with the principle of fair competition.
I believe
that to fight doping truly effectively, and not selectively, we need
to develop common international doping control standards.
The athletes themselves and the fans should have open access
to test results and to information on who underwent which
tests, when and where, how the tests were carried out,
the results obtained and the conclusions drawn. This information
should be completely open, transparent and under the oversight
of the international sports community.
The current
situation dictates the need for such a step. Only this way can
we achieve equal competition conditions for all. Without this, competition
simply makes no sense. We must avoid discrimination and exclude all
possibility of abuse, bias and political manipulation. These are
the tasks before the international sports community today. We must
also work in solidarity with our colleagues. I am sure that this is
in the interests of not only Russia but of sport throughout
the world.
Friends,
you know that despite the attempts to cast a shadow
on Russia’s athletes and deprive them of the right
to take part in the Olympics, millions of fans from many
different countries – I stress this – and from Russia
itself, of course, will be supporting our team with all sincerity.
Your
greatest support has and will come from Russia, of course,
and I am sure that you feel this. I am speaking of our
‘clean’ athletes who have been unfairly deprived of the right
to take part in competition, and of those who will take
part in this sports event.
Meeting with Russia’s Olympic team.
Many
athletes and coaches, sportspeople in track and field
and other disciplines, are bitterly disappointed right now, and we
understand this very well. But I want you all to know that we are
without a doubt proud of you and will do all we can
to stand up for your good name, sporting honour and dignity.
Justice will triumph.
Those
who go to Rio will not have an easy time, of course, but
the Russian character has a marvellous and important trait:
difficulties only make us stronger, unite us, waken colossal strength
of spirit in us and open the road to the most
arduous summits.
I sincerely
hope that you will have the chance to demonstrate your full talent
and skill and show the whole world that we can win openly
and fairly. All of vast Russia will be with you. I wish you
success.
Sergei
Tetyukhin, volleyball player, Olympic champion: Mr President, friends,
The Olympics
in Rio de Janeiro are my sixth Olympics. I know what
a great responsibility it is to compete in this competition,
and I know how important it is for us to have a united
and friendly team in which every athlete and every person is
ready to lend a shoulder and help in difficult moments.
Of course,
much responsibility at the Olympics rests on experienced
athletes, athletes with character, people who can set the lead
in the toughest moments.
You
all know that our Olympic team is in a difficult situation
at the moment, and in the face of all that is
happening, we must unite and become much stronger. I promise that we
will fight at all venues and arenas for our country, flag,
honour and good name.
I want
to thank all who have been directly involved in our preparation, our
families and friends, our supporters and all people involved
in sport. Thank you very much. I want to wish everyone success
in Rio.
With
Yelena Isinbayeva, two-time Olympic champion, holder of the Merited
Master of Sport of Russia title, and holder of 28 world
records in pole vaulting.
Yelena
Isinbayeva, two-time Olympic pole-vaulting champion: Mr President,
sportspeople,
Thank
you very much for this great support you have given us. It really is very
important because… (Applause)… because it is genuinely very important.
Track
and field is in the most difficult situation right now. We have
been banned from the competition without proof, in insolent
and primitive fashion, and without any chance to defend
ourselves and fight for our right to take part
in the Olympics. This is upsetting, of course,
and unpleasant, all the more so that this was to have been
the first Olympics for some of us, and for others
the last in their professional career.
Of course,
like everyone here, we put in four years of hard work for this,
spared no effort, strove for results, and had nearly reached
the final straight when we had our dream stolen from us. They took from us
the goal that had kept us going and motivated us to keep pushing
our own limits every day.
But
never mind, we are strong and we are not alone. Others here with us today
will not go to the Olympics because we are paying
for the mistakes of less responsible athletes who broke
the rules, and today we are answering collectively for this.
We
have encountered such disregard for the law today, such unfairness
and arbitrariness from some people in international sport, who
figured they could do as they please and change the rules only
a month before this important event, and we do not know what will
happen next and what reception we will have at the Olympics.
I want
to say that we are all one team, we are all one great nation,
and this situation will only make us more united. You must show
the best of your abilities, for yourselves,
and for all of us. You can do it; we believe in you.
Don’t
let anyone unsettle you or put pressure on you. Walk with your head
held high to make it clear to all those supposedly clean foreign
athletes that they have attacked the wrong people.
We
wish you sincere success, we believe in you, and we will be sitting
before our TV screens, cheering for you. I wish you all good luck,
belief in yourselves, and hope that you perform so well that
the whole world will sit up and take notice and the Russian
national anthem will ring out constantly in Rio’s stadiums. May God be
with you!(Applause)
Mr
President, we ask you and request directly that you protect us
in the face of this disregard for the law. We truly
need your support and advice today because, sadly, the athletes are
defenceless right now.
We
want to and can, but no one is hearing our voice, and we cannot
take any real measures ourselves. We love and believe in you very
much and thank you for your support. We must punish all who have had
a part in this.
Vladimir
Putin: Lena [Isinbayeva] spoke about unfairness just now, and this is
indeed the case. This is an attempt to apply
to international sport the rules that, unfortunately, often dominate
in international politics. Lena asked what is to be done in this
situation, but she then answered her own question when she said that we will be
even stronger. We believe in you and we wish you luck!
Farewell!
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