In 2020, just weeks into the mass outbreak of Covid-19 in the United States, the Boston Marathon was canceled. (I had raced it the year before, notching a 2:35:48, 225th overall, out of some 30,000 entries.) The venerable race has since returned, but now it is canceling some of its participants.
In doing so, the Boston Athletic Association, which administers the race, has yielded to one unseemly Western consequence of Russia’s unjust war in Ukraine (a war which, of course, remains the primary and rightful target of outrage): namely, the bout of performative elite hysteria directed against anything even remotely connected to Russia. Previously aimed at such bizarre targets as musical performances of or by Russian artists and participants in cat contests, this passion has now driven the BAA to ban Russian and Belarussian athletes from the race. Per its announcement on Wednesday:
The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) announced today that Russians and Belarusians, who were accepted into the 2022 Boston Marathon or 2022 B.A.A. 5K as part of the open registration process and are currently residing in either country, will no longer be allowed to compete in either event.
Russians and Belarussians not currently living in either country will be allowed to participate, and the BAA will attempt to refund athletes banned. Meanwhile, Ukrainians unable to participate in the race this year will receive a refund or a deferment, an excellent policy. Still, the treatment of others seems indecent to me. It is unlikely that the athletes set to participate in this race from the banned countries are directly implicated in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Nor will the BAA’s decision make the conflict any likelier to turn in Ukraine’s favor.
It is also a strange decision in light of how the BAA reacted to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The bombing, which killed three people and injured nearly 300 others, was perpetrated by two Chechen brothers. Despite poor U.S.–Russian relations over the past decade, the Russian government had warned the U.S. about the older of the pair (who largely drove the plot). The BAA did not react to an attack on its own event by banning all Chechnyans (or Russians) from participating. Its actions now seem pointless and spiteful.