She shouldn't be forced to shake the hands of a Russian when Russians are trying to destroy her country.
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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I absolutely understand not wanting to shake hands with your oppressor. As a fencer, I've been yelled at after forgetting to shake hands with an opponent, so I also understand how seriously a refusal is taken.
I wish that the rules allowed for some nuance in cases like this, but I understand why a sport born from combat requires unconditional amity between participants.
I wonder what the outcome would be if it was a germaphobic fencer who was only willing to tap blades? Was the punishment harsher because of the political tension of their home countries? Or is tapping blades considered completely unacceptable now?
Note: The culture at my club is that we all still just tap blades after a bout.
Other fencers at worlds were just tapping blades
Hmm, that's a good point. My last USA Fencing tournament was more than a year ago, and I don't recall if I shook hands or tapped blades. My club mostly does fist bumps.
Was the opposition a soldier in the Russian army attacking Ukraine, or are they among the other innocent Russians who are against the whole war?
It's a generalization. Sort of like labeling every Muslim as a terrorist due to 9/11. Hot take considering the other comments on this post, but the Ukranian fencer is in the wrong.
It's a national team, therefore they're representing their countries in an official capacity, regardless of their personal stances. It's more akin to Nazi Germany sending a team to the Olympic games and the controversy that surrounded that. That's the unfortunate nature of flags and sports, but it's how it is.
Edit: It appears the Russian fencer was participating as a neutral participant and not as a member of a Russian sponsored team. That makes it objectively unsporting on the Ukranian fencer's behalf, however subjectively I at least understand the problem. Just because the Russian fencer isn't participating as part of their national team (because their team was not allowed to participate) doesn't mean they aren't otherwise that team's fencer and are still, unofficially, representing their country.
As far as I'm aware, Russians are only allowed to compete if they are unaffiliated with the military. In a twist, the Russian competitor was also post-emptively disqualified from the competition because a picture of her supporting the Russian military was discovered (which is against the conditions for Russians to fence). If that picture has been uncovered before hand the Ukrainian would never had to fence her and wouldn't have been black carded.
Also, she did offer to tap blades, which was the defacto solution during COVID, so it wasn't a complete snub.
I find the politics of this situation very fascinating.