MOSCOW – Russia’s Olympic team competes abroad in unmarked uniforms without a national flag – similar to the Russian army in its unrecognized military incursions, as a joke makes the rounds in Moscow.
If a Russian wins a gold medal and takes first place on the podium, the country’s national anthem will not be played. Instead, a part of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 celebrates the winner.
“Let them listen to classical music,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Sakharova in a video the ministry released to cheer on the not entirely Russian team.
The Russians are proud of their athletes’ many medals this summer, despite the ban on national symbols at the Tokyo Summer Olympics – a punishment for outrageous doping violations in the past.
“Will that stop our boys?” Tina Kandelaki, a social media influencer, wrote on Instagram. “No. The Olympics are going to be one of those situations where you want to prove and show everyone that you are Russian.”
In fact, sports fans and sports commentators have no problem figuring out the thin fiction of their team’s strange, bureaucratic nickname: ROC, an acronym for the Russian Olympic Committee.
“This situation doesn’t bother anyone at all,” said Dmitri Kozika, bartender at the Probka sports bar, of Russian sports fans.
In the warm twilight of a recent summer evening in Moscow, fans sat on leather-covered bar stools, sipped beer, and watched the reruns from Tokyo. When Russians win gold, which happens often enough at the Olympic Games, the patrons cheer, said Kozika.
If anything, he added that the extra scrutiny of their team, which had to pass a rigorous drug-clearance program, has regained Russian sports fans a sense of pride in subsequent victories. “They really checked our boys out,” said Kozika. “You are clean.”
Roman Pritula, a paramedic who was taking a well-deserved break at the bar from his Covid-19 service, also shrugged the strange name of the Russian team.
“That doesn’t stop us from being proud,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether you run under the Olympic flag. They are still Russians. And when they win, it triggers positive emotions. “
And even officials who once bitterly complained about the doping restrictions have easily made fun of this humiliating state.
The State Department video, for example, ended with the booming drums of the Queen’s rock song “We Will Rock You” – which of course is rendered in writing as “We Will ROC You”.
The sovereign victory over the United States in women’s team gymnastics, Russian Olympic Committee Chairman Stanislav Pozdnyakov proudly said, will inspire a new generation of young Russian girls to become gymnasts.
Russians Lilia Akhaimova, Viktoria Listunova, Angelina Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova won gold medals after US star Simone Biles withdrew from the competition because she was dangerously disoriented during a jump and was mentally unwilling to continue.
“To be honest, I am full of emotions,” Pozdnyakov told the Tass news agency. “It’s been a long time since we dominated gymnastics so much. This is very important in team disciplines, as it inspires the other teams and fills them with spirit and motivates the next generation. “
State broadcaster 1’s sports commentator Dmitry Guberniyev was so inspired by the Russian – sorry, ROC – victory that he suggested proclaiming a national holiday.
“We just need a nationwide celebration,” he said. “The team was just amazing. We create miracles. “
Lidiya Ivanova, a commentator on Match TV, a Russian sports broadcaster, couldn’t contain her excitement when the Russian gymnasts won gold.
“What do you achieve, our girls! You are the best because you are Russian! They defended the honor of the country, ”she said. “I adore you. Everyone loves you.”
And the Russians can look forward to the ROC even more: Some events that have historically dominated Russian athletes with devastating championship, including artificial swimming and rhythmic gymnastics, are just around the corner.
The Russians proudly pointed out the actions of a female fencer, Marta Martyanova, whatever her team is called.
Martyanova refused, despite a leg trauma that was so painful that she cried and skipped on one foot, not to bow. At that point, no substitutes were allowed in team competition, and withdrawing would have cost the Russians a chance at a medal, so their stoic perseverance saved the day. Russia’s team went on to win the gold.
“A true heroine of the young woman,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The doping restrictions have been hanging over Russian sports for years, so Russian sports fans are no longer paying attention, Telesport commentator Alexei Durnovo said in an interview.
“They just want to watch sports and not think about what’s going on in medical laboratories,” he said.
The roots of the restrictions lie in one of the worst fraud scandals in sports history: During the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, there was an action by coaches, athletes and the Russian security services to exchange contaminated urine samples for clean ones.
The violations ultimately affected more than 1,000 athletes, coaches and sports officials in Russia and resulted in blanket bans on Russia’s participation in international sports, including the Olympic Games.
Russia tried for years to lift the bans and won a partial victory in the Sports Court in December that paved the way for 330 Russians to face objections from anti-doping officials in Tokyo, albeit not in national uniform.
Many Russians are simply happy when their gymnasts, swimmers, riders, archers and other athletes have a chance to win medals. But the overcoming of doping restrictions for some Russians was also a reason to cheer this summer.
Russian propaganda and even some team members have resented the flimsy punishment from doping regulators.
For example, a mural in Moscow shows a martial artist in a kimono with a bear emblem turning over a competitor in a kimono with the badge of WADA, the world anti-doping agency.
The Russian art swim team attempted to compete in bear-themed bathing suits only to reject the plan by Olympic officials because of the obvious reference to a Russian national symbol.
A team member, Alla Shishkina, complained bitterly, RT reported. “That annoyed us,” she said. “Bears live in many countries, not just Russia. Any bear could have been! A grizzly, a panda, everything. But they only banned it for our country. “
But she added, “We just got a little upset in the locker room, that was all. The most important thing is to perform well. “
[This article originally appeared in The New York Times.]