The Netherlands became the seventh country to join the boycott of the FIG Congress next month over the participation of Russian and Belarusian delegates. Earlier, Ukraine, Norway, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania and Italy all announced they will boycott the Congress. The event was originally supposed to be held in Norway but the FIG moved it to Turkey in order to allow Russian and Belarusian delegates to participate when Norwegian officials refused to host them. The President of the Dutch Gymnastics Association Monique Kempff wrote in the letter to the FIG:
“Our decision was prompted by the fact that Russian and Belarusian delegates still have the opportunity to register for the Congress. We support the position of European gymnastics, which has unanimously refused to communicate with the Russian and Belarusian gymnastics federations as the brutal, genocidal Russian war in Ukraine continues. As long as Russia continues this war, it is impossible to involve Russian athletes and officials in international sports. We hope that this war will end as soon as possible and that we can all be part of the Olympic Community in peace.”
However, there is no indication that the FIG plans to take any actions. The president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation and a member of the FIG Executive Committee Vassily Titov claimed that the number of countries boycotting the event is too small to matter:
“There are 143 member countries in the FIG. First of all, even if eight countries won’t take part, the quorum has still been reached. Second, each federation has a right to participate or not to participate. It makes me sad that [my] colleagues make their participation decision about politics. We are still members of the international federation, so we have to take part in all events organized by the FIG. There is no mass boycott.”
While athletes and judges from Russia and Belarus have been banned from the FIG competitions, officials have not. This creates a potential for conflicts of interests, especially when officials from those countries are given positions of power at competitions. For example, FIG vice-president Nellie Kim will be present at the upcoming Artistic World Championships as the president of the WAG Jury of Appeal and Supervisory Board. How will the FIG ensure there is no retaliation against participants from countries that are demanding that Nellie Kim be banned from FIG events? Her decisions in relation to those countries will automatically be suspect no matter what they are.
