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Sports: Should Politics Keep a Player from Playing?
Trudeau should deny Ovechkin a visa to enter Canada to play Leafs in January (Toronto Sun)
SUMMARY: “The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has written to the Trudeau government asking them to deny [Alexander] Ovechkin an entry visa to play against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 29.
“‘Ovechkin has been a long-time supporter of Russian President Putin having campaigned for him in the fraudulent Russian election in 2018,’ the UCC wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser.
“‘Ovechkin continues to support Putin as ‘“his president” even in the face of Russia’s genocidal war in Ukraine. Ovechkin has never condemned Russia’s genocidal war and continues to post a photo of himself with Putin on his social media account,’ UCC president Alexandra Chyczij wrote in the letter.”
MY TAKE: This story was brought to my attention by subscriber HB. He asked me: “Wonder what your take is on Alex Ovechkin’s checkered past supporting Vlad Putin, as Ovie barrels towards the all time goal scorer title? Full transparency, I’m a huge Ovie fan but am feeling conflicted separating my all time favorite player from the man.”
I’m with HB. I want to celebrate great athleticism but I can’t feel good about it when the athlete is a political jerk. The question before us is whether a country should ban a player for his politics. No, they shouldn’t. It’s not their job to punish him for speaking his mind. There are other options: the NHL could suspend him, his teammates could refuse to play with him, other teams could refuse to play against him, fans could refuse to buy tickets or watch games he plays in, sponsors could fire him. Preferably all of the above.
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT: If Ovechkin had kept his mouth shut, he could have continued playing without controversy. While I am in favor of athletes speaking out about their beliefs—I’ve been encouraging it for 50 years—we have to take responsibility for what we say and the consequences of it. Voicing support of bullying hard-line politicians returns athletes to the dumb jock status.
When you use your public platform to support a warmongering dictator and murderer (why do so many of Putin’s enemies fall out of windows?), you get what you deserve. Ovechkin is not a man fighting for equality and against injustice, just more killing. That is not a man whose athletic feats I want to celebrate. Nor do I want our children to look up to him as a hero.