England’s tennis officials made the right call last week in banning players from Russia and Belarus from participating in the mid-summer tournament known as Wimbledon because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players” in the tournament, the All England Club said in a statement.
Russian troops continue to slaughter tens of thousands innocent men, women and children by order of their president, Vladimir Putin.
Allowing Russian athletes to participate in Wimbledon would help normalize such atrocities.
Life goes on, would be the message
But life isn’t going on for Ukrainians.
Belarusian athletes are included in the ban because their president, Alexander Lushenko, is allowing Russian troops and weaponry, including ballistic missiles, to use Belarus as a launching pad into Ukraine.
Detractors say athletes shouldn’t be punished for their leaders’ actions.
But Putin not only takes credit for Russian athletes’ achievements but uses them as political props.
No one gloats more about athletic prowess than Putin. The photo op of him astride a horse while shirtless still haunts, as do his faux judo matches, or the set-up of him wrestling a bear.
In his machismo view, virility is inherent to leadership.
In that same vein, Putin expects Russian athletes to lend him — and Russia — prestige.
It was no coincidence that at the March pro-war rally in Moscow that Putin surrounded himself with half a dozen gold medal Olympians. There was no sending regrets to that “invitation.”
By extension, our citizenship makes us responsible for our leaders’ decisions. That’s what calls Americans to action when our democracy is attacked. It’s what makes democracy a verb.
And when a leader declares war, that’s a national declaration that his people are bound by, professional tennis player or not. A Russian can’t individually decide that when Putin invades Ukraine that he isn’t somehow responsible. After all, Putin and Luskenko were elected to office.
