BRICS nations want to develop the BRICS Games into a global spectacle after 50 countries confirmed their participation in the forthcoming edition of these Games next month.
The Russian city of Kazan will be the host of the BRICS Games from June 12-23 this year.
Vladimir Leonov, who is the Sports Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia announced that the BRICS Games will be televised live across the world.
"We also count on audiences in other countries. Today, negotiations are underway to take the signal to international airwaves. Brazil, China, India want to show the Games with their own commentators, in their own languages. There will be a good agenda, we want to discuss the further development of the BRICS Games," Leonov said in a press conference during the weekend.
Russian Athletes and the West's Unjust Practices
The development gains significance, given that Russian and Belarussian athletes have been banned from participating in the Olympics and other international events under the flags of their respective countries.
For instance, former World No.1 in tennis Daniil Medvedev couldn't participate in the sport's preeminent tournament, the Wimbledon Championships in the 2022 edition of the competition.
Similarly, the Russian football clubs were kicked out of UEFA's competitions.
Besides, FIFA excluded Russia's national team from playing in international tournaments, including the World Cup qualifiers.
In March 2024, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Russian athletes would not be allowed to feature in the opening ceremony of the Paris Games in July.
Following these sanctions, Moscow hit out at these organizations for mixing sports with politics, while slamming the IOC for violating the ideals of the Olympics.
Destruction of Olympism's Idea
"This is of course the destruction of the idea of Olympism, this is an infringement on the interests of Olympic athletes," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said following the IOC's controversial move.
"Of course, this is absolutely contrary to the entire ideology of the Olympic movement, and this does not paint the IOC in a good light," he added.
However, it is a well-established fact within the sporting fraternity that a majority of such bodies are dominated by Western nations, which continue to levy sanctions in one form or the other on Russia.
That's where Russia stepped up to place the BRICS Games on one of the top ladders in the sports world, with social media chatter suggesting that the Eurasian nation was pushing them as an alternative to the Olympics.
Suhel Ahmed, a former General Secretary of the Wushu Association of India, who is presently a member of the marketing and development committee of the Asian Wushu Federation, noted that sports and politics should be kept at a distance from each other.
Politics Has No Place in Sports
"Because the main message of the Games is to unite people and not to divide them, which in Russia's case looks unfair," Ahmed told Sputnik India on Thursday.
Also, Ahmed emphasized that the BRICS Games will offer another platform for the athletes to showcase their skills in a competition full of world-class players.
"This would help our players to learn new tricks as well as assess their strengths and weaknesses, and prepare them for big-ticket tournaments like the World Championships," the sports administrator added.
He underlined that the BRICS Games are like a boon for such disciplines that have been generally ignored by the Olympics.
For those who are unaware, Wushu has never been a part of the Olympics while it would appear in the upcoming edition of the BRICS Games in June.
On the other hand, Dr. Bhagirath Lal, the President of the Sambo India Association, agreed that the IOC had become a discriminatory body and was biased towards Russia.
Very few people may know that Sambo is a martial arts sport with Soviet origins. Unlike other international events, Sambo will make its BRICS Games debut at the event next month.
"The fact is that the Russian athletes will be able to represent their nation at the BRICS Games because BRICS wasn't dominated by a particular bloc. But the West's hegemony in the Olympics is clearly visible, which is why they have hijacked the whole Olympics movement. Though politics has no place in sports," Lal asserted in a conversation with Sputnik India.