She’s competing for short track. But hasn’t the same look in her eyes as her colleagues. Alena Krylova is Russian, but can’t race with her country’s flag. You could spot her from tens of meters because her costume is completely blank. Neutral athlete (Ain), that’s the acronymous.

A flag means pride when you win; support when you lose; strenght in both cases. Means belonging to a community larger than your close entourage. And this helps to cope with a hard athlete’s life, the perpetual race against time and numbers.

Imagine this girl roaming around the Olympic village, where lots of guys in their 20s and 30s sit with their colleagues, in groups often made out of nationalities. She is anonymous, with other anonymous from her land, obliged not to wear any symbols. Observed, in a way,like rare animals, like criminals.

Excluding countries from the Olympics has already been done, for South Africa in the apartheid era, for example.

It’s a powerful means of political and social pressure on governors.
But the weight is beared by the single athletes traveling the world.

I think not having a flag makes their performances worse. You lack traction.

I don’t know if there’s another way. Maybe it’s just life. But I know – and this for sure – that Israel should undergo the same treatment.