![]() ![]() ![]() That’s a trick that never seems to fail.” Welcome to Tokyo 2020, where just being Russian is a kick right now. ![]() Ryan Murphy (left), silver medallist in the men’s 200m backstroke, said after the ROC’s Evgeny Rylov (right) took gold: ‘I’m swimming in a race that’s probably not clean.’ Photograph: Xinhua/ShutterstockĬhuck in the colours on the podium, the non-flag in the emblem, the sight of officials and hangers-on wandering around with Russia-branded bits of kit, and a tendency for the Games PA to simply introduce the ROC team as “Russia”, and this has become a remarkable sporting PR coup, powered by that darkly humorous love of doublethink.Īs Colonel Korn notes in Catch-22: “To act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. But that confused response is also a mark of how hard it has been for competing athletes to live in the shadow of this, not to mention a measure of the staggering mismanagement of this entire situation by the International Olympic Committee. The insinuations from Rylov’s fellow swimmers were unkind and, like it or not, unfounded. This week a short film was released on social media showing ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova punching and kicking a martial arts dummy with the word “Press” on it, before signing off with a Queen-derived We Will Roc You riff.Īs the men’s 200m backstroke gold medallist Evgeny Rylov took some questions from his British and American competitors on Friday morning, forced in his own victory press conference to deny he was a doper, it was possible already to hear the machinery of that Russian counter-thrust kicking into gear, the tireless bots of Russian Olympic Swimming Response Twitter firing up, hashtagged, for completeness, with the #wewillROCyou brand. And beyond that, “We Will ROC You” has been the battle cry, a phrase popularised by, among others, the rapper Timati – best known for recording a song with the chorus “my best friend is President Putin” – and now apparently official policy of the Russian foreign ministry. The first really high-profile ROC gold medal of the Games, the men’s all-around team gymnastics, was greeted with scattered chants of Ross-iy-a in the media hall. Right now it is hard to remember a Games where Russia – who have been punished but feel no guilt, and who technically aren’t here at all – have seemed more insistently present.įrom the start there has been something seductively slick about the staging of the Russian Olympic Committee, also known as ROC, also known as Russia (Not Russia) and, increasingly, as just Russia. ![]()
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