MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. Israeli athletes' eligibility to participate in the Olympic Games, despite the country’s actions in the Gaza Strip, and the ineligibility of Russian athletes to compete internationally under the national flag is a "travesty" and madness, US-born Russian lawmaker and MMA star Jeff Monson told TASS on Tuesday.
"Israel is committing genocide and they are not barred from anything; they are supported by the United States," Monson said in an interview with TASS.
"As long as the United States is influencing the IOC with money, the situation will not change," he continued. "Israel is accused of genocide, the IOC said they committed genocide, the ICC [the International Criminal Court] said they committed genocide, but they are allowed to compete and there are no problems at all."
"Russia is defending the people of Donbass and is blocked from going to the Olympics. This is just about the United States supporting the Israeli army," he noted.
"This is one-country control—because of the money controlling the rest of the world and determining the lives of people and athletes… working their whole life to compete in the Olympics and then - nah, you can’t go to the Olympics."
"It’s the biggest travesty. I don’t know what else to say. It’s crazy," Monson added.
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games were hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed a team of 15 Russian athletes to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics as neutrals.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board met at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20, where it decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in the Parade of Athletes and to exclude them from the overall medal standings of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the ROC included the Olympic councils from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.
This suspension means the ROC cannot function as a national Olympic committee or receive funding from the Olympic movement. However, the IOC retains the right to permit Russian athletes to compete as neutrals at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach indicated that Russian athletes must disassociate from the ROC to be eligible for competition.
Jeff Monson
Jeffrey William Monson, 53, dubbed "The Snowman," hails from the state of Minnesota in the United States. His MMA career boasts a record of 60 wins, 26 defeats and two draws. He is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion. Last June he announced that he wrapped up his professional fighting career, but hinted on holding exhibition fights.
The US-born MMA fighter was granted Russian citizenship in May 2018 and in September of that year was elected to the Council of Deputies (City Council) in the Krasnogorsk District, Moscow Region, an inner suburb of the neighboring City of Moscow. In September 2023 he was elected as a lawmaker with the State Council of Bashkortostan from the ruling United Russia party.
Monson is known for his love of Russia and its Soviet past. On many occasions, he has appeared in the ring to the strains of the Soviet national anthem. In 2016, he was awarded the title of honorary citizen of Abkhazia; in 2017, he became a citizen of the Lugansk People’s Republic in the Donbass region.