IOC sanctions and cancellation of tournaments in Russia
The main scandal of the year was the removal of Russian athletes from participation in international competitions.
A few days after the start of the NWO in Ukraine, the IOC recommended that the federations “for security reasons” not allow Russians and Belarusians to participate in tournaments.
Most followed the instructions, even in those sports where domestic athletes play a huge role, such as figure skating and cross-country skiing.
FIFA first limited itself to obliging the clubs and national teams of the country to play without a flag and anthem, as well as to play home matches on neutral territory.
However, after the refusal of Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic to meet at the joints for the right to go to the 2022 World Cup with Valery Karpin's wards, she was forced to tighten measures.
The country also lost a large number of high-profile competitions that it was supposed to host, starting with the Champions League final in St. Petersburg and the world championships in volleyball and hockey, and ending with the Formula 1 stage in Sochi and the World Chess Olympiad.
And during the Olympic Games in Beijing, a grandiose scandal broke out with the participation of Kamila Valieva.
After the end of the team tournament, in which she and her partners won gold, it became known that the girl had passed a positive doping test for trimetazidine.
Moreover, this happened on December 25 in the Chechen Republic in St. Petersburg, but RUSADA was notified only after a month and a half.
However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that the skater has the right to compete in the individual championship, since as a 15-year-old she falls under the category of “protected person”.
Alas, the competition turned into a personal drama for her.
After the short program, Valieva was in the lead, but in the free program she could not cope with her nerves and collapsed to fourth place.
Further, the process developed in its own way.
In September, RUSADA announced the end of the review.
And in December, it became known about the lawsuit filed by WADA with CAS.
The International Anti-Doping Agency was dissatisfied with the fact that RUSADA postponed the consideration of her case several times and did not issue any verdict before the agreed deadline.
The organization demanded to disqualify the skater for four years and cancel all her results, starting from December 25, 2021.
Despite the threat of sanctions, some Russians in those events where there was still the opportunity to participate in international competitions were not afraid to speak out in support of the CBO.
For example, young gymnast Ivan Kulyak, at his debut stage of the Planet Cup in Doha, entered the awards ceremony with the letter Z on his chest.
He explained his act by the ugly behavior of the Ukrainians, who provoked the Russians and demanded not to allow them to the tournament.
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) did not appreciate the athlete's gesture and called it "shocking."
As a result, he was suspended for a year.
The ban also applied to domestic competitions.
In addition, Kulyak was ordered to return the won medal and prize money, as well as pay legal costs.
Sergei Karyakin also suffered for his convictions.
After the start of the SVO, he published a post on social networks in which he thanked Vladimir Putin for fighting for the safety of the Russian population of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
FIDE reacted immediately and suspended the Russian from participation in all competitions under its auspices for six months.
Including he was forced to miss the Candidates Tournament.
This decision was not accepted by all, even foreign rivals.
For example, world champion Magnus Carlsen asked himself the question: is it worth punishing a person for expressing an opinion?
In September, Karjakin's suspension came to an end, but so far he is far from returning.
Firstly, he fundamentally intends to play only under the flag of the country, while at the moment domestic grandmasters play in a neutral status.
Secondly, some countries may simply not let Sergey in because of his position.
For example, this has already been announced in Norway.
It was not an easy year for the aforementioned Carlsen either.
In July, he voluntarily refused to hold a match for the chess crown with Ian Nepomniachtchi due to lack of motivation, and in the fall he provoked a conflict with the young American Hans Niemann.
First, the Norwegian lost to him with white at a prestigious tournament in St. Louis and withdrew, and then resigned on the second move during online competitions.
Later, he explained his decision by saying that the opponent cheated in the past, so there is no trust in him.
Magnus also hinted that "a good job" with Niemann in this regard was done by his mentor Maxim Dlugy.
In response, the specialist promised to file a lawsuit.
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© Vladimir Astapkovich
"Robbery" of Ankalaev and deportation of Djokovic
In those events where the Russians were not suspended, they faced controversial refereeing.
So, two major scandals flared up in the UFC in a few months.
In October, Peter Yan suffered an extremely controversial defeat from the American Sean O'Malley in Abu Dhabi.
He had a clear advantage, in particular, he had several successful takedowns, but the referee took the side of his opponent.
Even more shocking was the verdict in the December confrontation between Magomed Ankalaev and Jan Blakhovitch.
A native of Dagestan had a chance to win the light heavyweight belt and did everything possible for this.
He had a huge advantage in accurate (191 vs. 79) and accented strikes (78 vs. 55) and performed two takedowns, while his opponent did not have a single one.
But the judges managed to score a draw.
This outcome surprised even Blachowicz, who stressed right in the octagon that Ankalev deserved to win.
Magomed himself, on emotions, did not rule out leaving the organization, but later explained that he would not fight only in Las Vegas, where the sensational duel took place.
However, not only domestic athletes faced restrictions and sanctions.
The year began with a huge scandal around Novak Djokovic.
The organizers of the Australian Open gave him a medical exemption regarding the refusal of vaccination against coronavirus and announced the tournament.
However, the document contained several discrepancies.
Upon arrival, the Serb was detained at Melbourne Airport and spent several days in a quarantine hotel.
And most importantly, his visa was cancelled.
Further events developed rapidly.
The federal court of Melbourne granted the tennis player's appeal, and he even held the first training session.
But a few days later, the country's Minister of Immigration, Alex Hawke, revoked Djokovic's visa "for reasons of health security and maintaining order."
In response, Novak again filed an appeal, but this time the Melbourne Federal District Court took the side of the authorities.
The ex-first racket of the planet was forced to leave Australia, where he was banned from entering for three years.
Even Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić did not leave the deportation without comment, calling the incident "political harassment."
And in women's tennis, there was the largest doping scandal since 2016, when Maria Sharapova passed a positive test for meldonium.
In the body of one of the stars of the tour, Simona Halep, an analogue of erythropoietin, roxadustat, was found.
This drug increases the delivery of oxygen to working muscles to increase endurance.
The athlete, suspended from all competitions during the investigation, admitted that she did not know how the banned substance got to her.
According to the Romanian media, this happened through sports nutrition.
The manufacturer, allegedly, did not indicate the presence of the drug in the composition on the package.
Detention of Fedotov and release of Greiner
Surely, she will try to quickly forget the outgoing year and Brittney Griner.
At the end of February, the basketball player was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport on suspicion of drug smuggling and possession.
Her vape was found to contain hash oil, which is not banned in the US.
The two-time Olympic champion was taken into custody.
In the summer, the Khimki Court of the Moscow Region found her guilty and sentenced her to nine years in prison in a penal colony.
The lawyers of the athlete considered the verdict one of the most stringent in Russia under this article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and filed an appeal, but the Moscow Regional Court rejected it.
At the same time, back in August, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that they were negotiating with the United States on a possible exchange of Viktor Bout for Paul Whelan and Greiner.
And in December, the basketball player was officially exchanged for Bout, who was serving a prison sentence in the United States.
In parallel, they were pardoned by the presidents of the countries, and criminal prosecution against them ceased.
Problems with the law also arose with the goalkeeper of the Russian national hockey team Ivan Fedotov.
In early July, he was detained by unknown persons at the exit from the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg.
As reported in the media, the reason could be evasion from military service.
At the same time, the athlete’s contract with CSKA recently expired, and in May he signed an agreement with the Philadelphia Flyers NHL club, where he was supposed to go in the near future.
Later, the young man's lawyer said that he was taken to the military registration and enlistment office, and then transported to Severomorsk, where his gastritis worsened, and he also had problems with his back and legs. A few days later, information appeared that Fedotov was in Severodvinsk and would remain there at the training center until September.
In parallel, the defense of the hockey player filed a lawsuit and a complaint to the Military Prosecutor's Office.
But already in the fall, it became known that Ivan had withdrawn the lawsuit and the administrative case was terminated.
And one of the country's leading hockey journalists, Alexei Shevchenko, announced that the goalkeeper had signed a new three-year contract with CSKA.
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© Aleksando Ovcharov
Ronaldo's demarche and Fedotov's clash with Abascal
There were also enough scandals in football, and the loudest was connected with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese fell out of favor with the new Manchester United manager Eric ten Hag and received less and less match practice.
Of course, this state of affairs could not suit the star.
The first wake-up call came in October when he voluntarily left the bench at the end of the Premier League match against Tottenham.
For this, the player was fined a large sum and temporarily suspended from classes with the main team.
Finally, the bridges were burned after the release of a sensational interview with Piers Morgan.
In it, the five-time winner of the Golden Ball severely criticized the mentor and the club.
In particular, he said that he does not respect the coach and this is mutual.
He reproached the leadership for the lack of new technologies and lamented that the situation in this regard had not changed since the departure of Alex Ferguson.
Moreover, the striker accused Manchester United of betrayal.
After that, there was no point in continuing cooperation.
Already during the World Cup, the parties terminated the contract.
However, Ronaldo also failed at the World Cup.
The Portuguese national team flew out in the quarterfinals, and he ended up in the playoffs in the reserve.
In Russia, the skirmish between Vladimir Fedotov and Guillermo Abascal was remembered during the match of the 13th round of the RPL CSKA - Spartak.
The meeting turned out to be bright, and the teams scored four goals.
The coaches, however, could not stand the nerves.
During the break, the Spaniard ran towards his colleague shouting "Fair play".
He was dissatisfied with the fact that the army team continued the game after Roman Zobnin stopped in the center of the field and scored the ball.
In response, Fedotov at a press conference, commenting on what happened, said "something was jumping nearby."
Soon, a more detailed video of the episode was published on social networks, which shows that the Russian himself used foul language and, in particular, urged his counterpart not to wave his hands and go home.
As a result, the incident had to be considered by the RFU FTC, and both specialists received disqualifications for the game.
It was also restless in 2022 in Khimki.
So, in the summer, Sergei Yuran was unexpectedly dismissed there, although the team scored seven points in the first four rounds, including breaking up with Zenit.
The club's management considered it to be expected, allegedly, the parties did not initially plan long-term cooperation.
At the same time, various reasons were given in the media for leaving: from an attempt by a specialist to organize a fixed match with Rostov to unwillingness to put the son of the main investor, Ilya Sadygov, in the squad.
Disqualification of Voronkov and recognition of Nugumanova
Volleyball coach Andrey Voronkov got into an even less attractive situation.
During the match of the final series of the championship of Russia, the coach of Lokomotiv, referring to the ward, called the Cuban point guard of Uralochka-NTMK Ailama Montalvo a monkey.
The WFV Disciplinary Committee, in hot pursuit, considered the specialist's statement racist and offensive and recommended that he be disqualified for two years.
The executive committee of the federation agreed with the proposal and imposed restrictions on Voronkov.
An aggravating circumstance was the fundamental unwillingness to apologize.
Only after learning about the punishment, he stressed that he did not want to offend anyone, and his words were taken out of context.
And in Germany, a huge scandal erupted around diving coach Werner Langer.
His former ward Jan Hempel admitted that he was sexually abused by a mentor for 14 years.
The country's swimming federation reacted as harshly as possible and, right in the course of the European Championship, removed the helmsman of the national team, Lutz Bushkov, who knew about the crimes of his colleague against the wards, but did not help them.
At the same time, Langer himself died 21 years ago.
Meanwhile, well-known figure skater Elizaveta Nugumanova accused coach Evgeny Rukavitsyn of insulting and humiliating her.
The girl told how they called her fat and forbade her to work with the group, and one of the assistants even promised to "send her to the next world."
The story ended with the transition of the athlete to another mentor - Elena Sokolova, who specializes in ice dancing.
The St. Petersburg Figure Skating Federation reviewed the details of the case, but did not issue any sanctions, and all parties continued to work.
Serious conflicts flared up in some sports federations of the country.
For example, in the SBR, for most of the year, the "series" with the presidential election continued.
The current head Viktor Maygurov opposed Alexei Nuzhdov.
Ten days before the vote, the council of the organization filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office.
In it, the three-time world champion was accused of abuse of office, arbitrariness and illegal activities in terms of the distribution of finances.
As a result, it was not possible to determine the winner.
The functionary lacked one vote to be re-elected.
Before the second round, which took place in October, the parties also exchanged loud accusations.
For example, the leaders of regional federations reproached the incumbent president for forcing him to support him.
He, in turn, considered the opponent's behavior unethical.
However, Maygurov still managed to keep his post.
31 delegates took his side, while Nuzhdov - 23.
It was also restless in the Freestyle Federation of the country.
In April, world champion Anastasia Tatalina published an open letter to Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin.
In it, she accused the organization and the coaching staff of disrupting preparations for the Olympics, and also remembered how she was required to give 50% of the prize money after winning the world championship.
In response, the FFR called the girl’s words a lie, and her mentor Nikita Vasiliev suspected that the ward had a star disease.
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© Alexey Filippov
Fight at EuroBasket and problems with documents before the World Cup
However, scandals flared up not only in Russia.
For example, at the men's EuroBasket during the match between Georgia and Turkey, there was a mass brawl.
It began with a skirmish between Furkan Korkmaz and Duda Sanadze.
After the meeting, the Turks accused the rivals of the fact that three opponents attacked Korkmaz and one of the coaches in the under-tribune room at once, including the remote Sanadze.
Moreover, they reported that local policemen (the game took place in Tbilisi) rudely pushed them into the locker room.
The confrontation ended with a sensational overtime victory for the hosts, but the guests filed a protest.
And the Ecuador national team almost missed the World Cup due to problems with one of the players with documents.
The Chileans, who did not qualify for the World Cup, accused the defender Byron Castillo that he was actually born in Colombia, and his Ecuadorian documents were falsified.
The British tabloid Daily Mail, after investigating, found that the athlete is three years older than indicated in the passport.
But the disciplinary committee of FIFA refused to satisfy the complaint.
A few months later, the Appeal Commission of the Federation did the same.