"Olympic ideals are drowning in the muddy waters of the Seine." The Vremya program saw only scandals at the Olympics - those that exist and those that don't

The host of the program "Vremya" Ekaterina Andreeva prefaced Pavel Krasnov's story about the Olympics in Paris with the following tirade:

"The Paris Olympics are breaking records. But more often than not, not sporting ones, but scandalously absurd ones. The opening ceremony is like a black mass. The escape of athletes from the Olympic Village. And the first guys in the Village - obvious transgenders - beat women in the ring. A pedophile was even found who was admitted to the Games. And these are no longer Games, and not even toys, but the strict standards of the West, which it imposes on the rest of the world. It seems that not only Olympic ideals are drowning in the muddy waters of the Seine."

The "black mass" apparently refers to a short carnival-style episode from the hours-long opening ceremony: the mise-en-scène was reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." However, the director of the ceremony, Thomas Jolly, after the scandal broke, explained that he was inspired by a painting by a relatively little-known Dutch artist, Jan van Bijlert, depicting the feast of the Olympic gods. The mise-en-scène, with the figure of Bacchus in the foreground, is indeed more similar to Bijlert's painting than to Leonardo's fresco. In a statement, the Games' organizing committee noted that there was no intention to express disrespect to any religious group, and expressed regret that the scene had offended anyone. It would seem that the misunderstanding has been resolved, but not for Channel One, where the ceremony, which included a short ironic episode, turned into a satanic parody of a religious service.

A significant part of Pavel Krasnov's story was devoted to the scandal in women's boxing. The Insider has already written about how athletes from Algeria and Taiwan were declared men by the press - on the grounds that last year at the world championships organized by the IBA - an organization with which the IOC does not cooperate - they failed the gender test. Krasnov states:

“For some reason, obvious things—that men shouldn’t beat women—now have to be proven.”

The propagandists are not embarrassed by the fact that before being disqualified from the World Championship, neither Iman Khelif from Algeria nor Lin Yuting from Taiwan had successfully participated in IBA competitions for several years, where gender tests are mandatory. The Taiwanese athlete became world champion twice, in 2018 and 2022, while the Algerian took 2nd place in 2022.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams made a statement regarding the IBA tests:

"These tests are not legitimate. The process of the test itself and its nature are not legitimate. This should not be discussed in public. Even the way these tests were taken was illegal. I do not intend to comment on this."

The Vremya program's report shows the moment after Khelif's fight with Italian Angela Carini, who took a powerful blow in the first minute and sustained an injury — presumably a broken nose — after which she could not continue the fight. An annoyed Carini, after Khelif was declared the winner, shouts "it's not fair!" and refuses to shake hands. However, on the eve of the report's release, Carini apologized to Khelif and stated:

"This whole situation upsets me. I feel sorry for my opponent too. If the IOC allowed her to compete, I respect that decision. Refusing a handshake? I didn't mean to do that. In fact, I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics were ruined. If I meet her, I will definitely hug her."

But the author of the story chose not to notice this.

The next scandalous story is the quality of the water in the Seine, where the triathlon swims took place. For a long time, the water in the Seine was very dirty and unsuitable for swimming, but in recent years, Paris has launched a large-scale water purification program; before the opening of the Olympics, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a swim in the river. During the Olympics, due to heavy rain, the water quality deteriorated, triathletes' training was moved to the pool, and the start of the individual men's competition was postponed for a day. But when the competition took place, the water quality, according to the results of tests, was "very good."

But Krasnov shows in his story how after the finish, Canadian triathlete Tyler Mislavchuk, who took 9th place, vomits. Mislavchuk himself, however, explained this by the heat and overexertion, and the newspaper Le Parisien published the opinion of doctor Mikael Rochoua: the symptoms of E. coli infection, which Mislavchuk was suspected of having, cannot appear so quickly after the swim. There were no reports in the following days of any manifestations of infection in Mislavchuk, as well as in Kazakhstani triathlete Ekaterina Shabalina, who also had an attack of vomiting after she swallowed river water after receiving a blow to the head from an opponent. However, this again does not stop the propagandist.

The story developed the following morning: Channel One reported that the Belgian triathlon team had withdrawn from the mixed relay because one of the participants had contracted E. coli after swimming in the Seine and had been hospitalized, and there was no one on the team to replace her. Claire Michel was indeed hospitalized on Sunday and was discharged the next day, but neither she, nor the Belgian team, nor the Games organizing committee reported anything about the diagnosis. The press in various countries published articles linking the athlete's illness to the quality of the river water; the publications cite the Belgian newspaper De Standaard, which does not disclose its source. Considering that France takes medical confidentiality seriously, the observance of which is included in the Code of Professional Ethics of a physician, the information from De Standaard looks somewhat dubious.

Paris Vice Mayor Pierre Rabadan, who is responsible for sports, noted that there were several other cases of athletes falling ill at the Olympics, but of those, only Michelle took part in the swim in the Seine.

True, after this statement, an intestinal infection was discovered in Swiss triathletes Adrien Briffault and Simon Westermann, but the source of the infection is unknown. Briffault took part in the swim, Westermann did not. The fact that this happened to athletes from the same team, one of whom did not swim in the Seine, raises serious doubts about the river water being the cause. Another triathlete who swam in the river, Norwegian Vetle Bergsvik Thorn, who had an attack of vomiting the day after the competition, explains his illness by food poisoning. Forbes notes that symptoms of gastroenteritis can be caused by norovirus, rotavirus and salmonella, and the risk of contracting these infections at the Games was considered significant from the very beginning.

From intestinal infection, correspondent Krasnov smoothly moves on to the quality of food in the Olympic Village:

"Raw meat! You heard right, athletes are being served raw meat! For a country known worldwide for its haute cuisine, this is an unforgivable oversight."

Krasnov is not original; the Olympic organizers have been criticized in various countries for raw meat. Apparently, the critics do not realize that in French cuisine there is a dish called steak tartare, also known as American steak, a dish made from raw ground beef with a raw egg yolk. However, the athletes could also have been offered carpaccio, an Italian dish made from thinly sliced ​​raw beef with olive oil and lemon juice. These dishes can often be found in European restaurants. It is unclear why they should be considered unacceptable for athletes.

The British team was indeed unhappy with the menu and invited their chef to the Games. This can hardly be considered a serious scandal: the decision to offer athletes food that they are accustomed to is quite logical. But Krasnov continues:

"A swimmer from Australia even said that the food at the Games prevents them from showing good results. The lack of world records is explained by the fact that here they don't think about results, but about ecology, veganism and carbon footprint. They had a charter according to which 60% of the food in the village had to be vegan."

The 2012 Olympic champion James Magnussen, who is not participating in the current Olympics, did criticize the Olympic menu in an interview with the Daily Mail. But he exaggerated a bit about the 60% vegan food. According to the publication VegOut, dedicated to vegetarianism and veganism, it was initially assumed that 60% of the dishes in the Olympic Village canteen would be plant-based, and 30% vegan. However, when it turned out that the organizers underestimated the demand for dairy dishes and eggs, this miscalculation was corrected. In the last week, reports of shortages of certain products have come only from Russian propagandists.

After this, the Vremya program talks about the decision of a number of athletes to live outside the Olympic Village, in hotels, because they were offered cramped rooms with cardboard beds and no air conditioning:

"Athletes are moving en masse to hotels. The South Korean swimming team has moved in full force. The team's coach explained the reasons for this decision exhaustively: "We just want to make sure that they will be at least a little more comfortable."

Channel One quoted the phrase of the Korean coach Chong Chang-hoon, reported by Reuters, correctly, but cut it off at the most interesting place. The coach then explained what exactly was the reason for the move. According to him, the buses that deliver the athletes to the competition site are as hot as a sauna, and the journey takes from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. Therefore, the team decided to settle closer to the Olympic pool.

Other famous athletes have also decided to live outside the Olympic Village, including famous tennis players Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev, as well as world record holder in pole vaulting Armand Duplantis. Medvedev, who is competing at the Games as a neutral, answered a question from a correspondent for the Russian publication “Championship” about why many tennis players do not live in the Olympic Village:

“I can speak specifically about myself. In Tokyo, I really liked the Olympic Village. There was the Olympic spirit, the other athletes – it was really cool. There are many different reasons, but in the end, you get really tired of it. We tennis players are used to having our own crazy routine, everything is scheduled down to the minute. By the time you get to the Olympic canteen, by the time you wait in line for food, by the time you get back, by the time you get on the bus. In Tokyo, I saw that not all the tennis players lived in the Olympic Village. There are only 15 neutral athletes here. I decided that if I wanted a medal, it would be better to live in a hotel.”

Towards the end of the story, Krasnov told about a really loud scandalous story; there are no signs of a fake here:

"Another scandal has erupted in beach volleyball. The Netherlands included an athlete who was once convicted of pedophilia in their national team. Even the Western press considered his presence at the Games inappropriate. "The controversy continues because of the spinelessness of the authorities who created this situation. With a past like van de Velde's, the path to the Olympics is closed. What a black and shameful day!"

The last phrases are a quote from Oliver Brown's column in The Telegraph. However, the story of the Dutch athlete, found guilty of three counts of rape of a minor in 2014, when he was 19, is not so simple. With such a serious charge, the British court sentenced him to only 4 years in prison and sent him to serve his sentence in the Netherlands, where the charge was reclassified and the term was reduced to 1 year.

It would seem that this is an inexplicable leniency, since in Britain this article provides for imprisonment for up to life. But the fact is that, according to British law, a child under 13 is considered incapable of consciously giving consent to sexual relations, so any sexual intercourse with them is considered rape. Van de Velde met a 12-year-old British girl through a social network, came to her city of Milton Keynes and had intimate relations with her three times. The details of this story are understandably hidden from the public, but the lenient sentence can be explained by the fact that he did not know the real age of his acquaintance. If she had turned 13, the defendant could have been acquitted altogether - unless it is proven that he knew that she was under 16 (the age of consent in Britain). This ground for acquittal is not applicable to crimes against children under 13. Since the identity of the victim is not disclosed, it is impossible to establish whether she looked significantly older than her age.

In the Netherlands, where the law does not consider a 12-year-old child incapable of giving consent, van de Velde's crime was classified not as rape but as corruption of a minor and his sentence was reduced accordingly. After serving his sentence, the athlete was never brought to justice. He repented of his crime, calling it the greatest mistake of his life.

Of course, van de Velde cannot be justified, he committed a crime. But he has already been punished for it and has since lived the life of a respectable citizen. It is unclear why he should be banned from high-performance sports and participating in major competitions. So this story, despite Krasnov's pathos, hardly casts a shadow on the Dutch Volleyball Federation and the IOC, which decided to allow van de Velde to participate in the Olympics.