Russia's invasion of Ukraine is causing ripples throughout the sports world
CBC
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In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia during the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. In 2014, Russia waited six days after the closing ceremony of the Sochi Games to attack Crimea. Now, another six days after the conclusion of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Russia has stormed Ukraine.
The latest invasion is already causing ripples throughout the sports world. Soccer's Champions League final, scheduled for May in St. Petersburg, was reportedly pulled from the Russian city in response to the attack on Ukraine, among multiple other events that are now either in peril or scrapped entirely.
Winter sports World Cups in ski cross, aerials and parallel slalom snowboarding were scheduled to take place across Russia this week. The International Ski Federation (FIS) told CBC Sports the first two will go ahead as planned for now after athletes travelled directly from the Beijing Olympics. The snowboard event is listed as "cancelled" on the FIS website.
If the events do move forward, Canadians won't be involved. Alpine Canada, which oversees the ski cross team, told CBC Sports it was pulling its 15 athletes from the event and working with the ministers of global affairs and sports to secure them flights home as soon as possible.
The Canadian aerials team also didn't go to Russia. The cross-country team said it won't attend its late-March event in Russia following discussion with the federal government.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) each condemned Russia's attack, calling it a "breach of the Olympic truce" that runs from seven days before the Olympics to seven days after the Paralympics and is meant to promote "peace, dialogue and reconciliation." Russia has now breached that truce three times in 14 years.
The IPC also expressed concern for Ukrainian athletes who were slated to compete in China.
"Getting the team to Beijing is going to be a mammoth challenge," IPC president Andrew Parsons said after discussions with a Ukrainian Paralympic official. In the summer, three Afghanistan athletes were able to make it to the Tokyo Paralympics with international help shortly after the Taliban's takeover.
For the IOC, the statement rings a little hollow. It has been weak in sanctioning Russia for its state-run doping program dating back to 2014, allowing the country's athletes to continue competing as the "Russian Olympic Committee," though Russia's flag and anthem were both banned. The same will apply for the upcoming Paralympics, except for the change to "Russian Paralympic Committee."
The biggest controversy of the Beijing Olympics happened when 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned substance after helping the ROC win gold in the team event. The IOC says it is waiting for the full World Anti-Doping Agency investigation before it possibly strips the medal.
Despite the ongoing doping scandal, Russian president Vladimir Putin was allowed to attend the opening ceremony. Hours before it began, he and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the leader of the host country, presented a unified front against the U.S. and its allies in a joint press conference.
Read more about how sports are being affected by Russia's invasion of Ukraine here. For more on the crisis, keep up with the latest from CBC News here.
There's a new No. 1 in men's tennis. For the first time in two years, Novak Djokovic has been supplanted atop the ATP rankings. Over the course of his career, Djokovic has been ranked No. 1 for 361 weeks (not consecutively), the most for any male since computerized rankings began in 1973. The Serb was passed by Russia's Daniil Medvedev after losing his quarter-final match in straight sets to Czech qualifier Jiri Vesely at the Dubai Championships. Djokovic was unable to defend his Australian Open title last month after he was deported from the country for being unvaccinated, and Dubai marked his first tournament back in action. Elsewhere, Canada's Denis Shapovalov downed No. 99 Ricardas Berankis to secure his spot in the semifinal, where he'll meet Vesely. He had upended Japan's Taro Daniel to reach the quarter-finals. Read more about Djokovic's drop and Shapovalov's latest victory here.
