KYIV, Ukraine — They fought on the identical aspect and collectively gained Olympic gold, younger males from Russia and a newly impartial Ukraine, joined for one final medal-winning hurrah on a short-lived post-Soviet Unified Staff on the 1992 Barcelona Video games.

Now, former fencers Vadym Guttsait and Stanislav Pozdnyakov are on reverse sides of the conflict that Russia is waging on Ukraine. Each have risen to grow to be senior sports activities directors, respectively heading the Ukrainian and Russian Olympic committees. The almost year-old invasion has completely shredded what was left of their friendship and so they’re now combating one another in a divisive and rising cut up inside the Olympic motion over whether or not Russia and ally Belarus ought to be barred from subsequent yr’s Paris Video games.

Guttsait, who can be Ukraine’s sports activities minister in addition to its Olympic committee president, now has solely contempt for his former teammate. Guttsait calls Pozdnyakov “my enemy” and says their friendship started to break down when Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which enters its second yr subsequent week, was the final straw. Guttsait blames the Russian Olympic Committee president for making supportive feedback of the assault.

“I don’t wish to discuss to him. I don’t wish to know him in any respect. He’s my enemy, who helps this conflict, who considers it an honor for athletes to participate within the conflict towards Ukrainians, to kill Ukrainians,” Guttsait stated. “Subsequently, for right this moment and without end, this individual doesn’t exist for me.”

The problem of whether or not athletes from Russia and Belarus ought to be allowed to compete is shaping up as the most important potential spoiler of subsequent yr’s Paris Olympics. Guttsait is threatening a Ukrainian boycott if Russians and Belarusians are there and he’s mobilizing help from different international locations, backed by the wartime star energy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Russia and Belarus, however, are clinging to a lifeline thrown to them by the Worldwide Olympic Committee, which says a few of their athletes might be able to return to worldwide competitors regardless of the conflict. The IOC means that their athletes who haven’t actively supported the conflict might attempt to qualify and compete as “impartial athletes,” stripped of nationwide crew uniforms, flags and anthems. Pozdnyakov has stated Russia is making ready as if its athletes are going to Paris.

In an interview late Tuesday with The Related Press, Guttsait laid out the method that would result in a Ukrainian boycott of Paris if that occurs. The minister stated his personal private opinion is that “we have to boycott” if Russians and Belarusians attend. However he added that the choice is not his alone to make and stated the Ukrainian Olympic Committee will convene a unprecedented assembly and “we are going to determine collectively whether or not we are going to take part or not.”

“It is a essential query, it’s a very severe query and troublesome for each athlete, for each coach who prepares all his life to go to the Olympic Video games,” he stated. “However whereas our persons are dying, ladies and kids are being killed, our cities are being destroyed, we stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian individuals. For my part, that is extra necessary than going to the competitors. However we have to make this political choice along with our Olympic household.”

Earlier than any choice for a full boycott, Ukrainian athletes might additionally present opposition by withdrawing from Olympic qualifying competitions that enable Russian and Belarusian entrants. Guttsait cited the instance of the European wrestling championships in Croatia in April. If Russian and Belarusian athletes compete, Ukrainian wrestlers will both not attend “or they may come and never participate,” Guttsait stated.

Worldwide Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach is dealing with a widespread backlash from Ukraine and its allies for opening a door for some athletes from Russia and Belarus to return to worldwide competitors. Bach argues that the Olympic motion has a “unifying mission of bringing individuals collectively” and a confirmed monitor document of opening traces of communication between nations divided by battle. He cites the instance of North and South Korea, which fielded a joint ladies’s hockey crew on the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Guttsait famous, nevertheless, that there are additionally Olympic precedents for protecting nations out. Germany and Japan weren’t invited to the 1948 London Olympics after they had been the aggressors in World Battle II and South Africa was excluded from 1964-1988 due to its racist Apartheid legal guidelines.

The minister stated help amongst Russian athletes for the invasion makes their presence on the Paris Olympics unthinkable whereas the conflict rages. He additionally famous that Russian athletes are sometimes enrolled within the nation’s armed forces.

Ukrainian athletes, however, are dealing with the miseries of conflict as they struggle, as greatest they’ll, to prepared themselves for Paris.

“I actually need all individuals to grasp how we put together, how our athletes stay, that our athletes practice whereas cruise missiles are flying, bombs are flying,” Guttsait stated. “The Olympic Video games are nice, they unite the entire world, however not these athletes who help this conflict and this aggression.”

___

Comply with AP’s protection of the conflict at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

___

Extra AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports