The Russian Swimming Federation finalized its 2016 competition calendar last year, and cemented Moscow as the hosts of its 2016 Olympic Trials.
The final dates for the meet that will select Russia’s Olympic Team were not announced, but the meet will be held in April. The Russians held their 2012 Olympic Trials from April 17th-22nd.
Swimming at this year’s Olympic Games will be approximately a week later than they were last year in relative terms.
Also at the meet, Russia announced that it would bid to host the 2019 European Aquatics Championships in its Krasnodar region. The far western area has a population of approximately 5 million residents and lies on the Black Sea.
That adds to the growing list of meets that Russia is bidding to host after its 2015 duties at the World Aquatics Championships, and includes the 2017 and 2019 European Short Course Championships and the 2018 and 2019 European Junior Championships.
I agree that the Russian policies do discriminate, however they hardly go out and harrass or search out the LGBT communities. As to Russia being a venue or not, we must also then place our own country (USA) under scrutiny. Is the fact that 1 in 5 African American males rot in US jails not a human rights abuse? How about our sheltering of Luis Carilles Posada, the man who blew up a Cuban airliner for the CIA? Is he not a terrorist? How about our own treatment of the LGBT community? We have continued to trash their rights in our own country. I disagree strongly that somehow we hold the moral high ground over Russia.
Tamp it up solid Tom , so that it won’t come down.
Exactly why would Russia be a suitable venue for any international event. LGBT swimmers and other athletes (to say nothing of their fans) would have to face horrendous abuse to participate in those events. Russia today is a violent nation. Violent attacks on LGBT persons are commonplace. Prosecutions are extremely rare.
Athletes aren’t the guests of the host nation, they’ve earned the right to compete. And for International Sporting Associations to tell some minorities that they have to be demeaned or abused in order to compete isn’t fair play. Athletes shouldn’t have to ‘check’ their free speech rights at the door in order to compete.
Russian guarantees of fair play cannot be taken at face value. Russia has… Read more »