Lawmaker and ex-MMA fighter Monson calls US influence on IOC a ‘shame’

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. The United States exerts control over the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and this influence “is a shame” that deters many people from watching the Olympic Games, said US-born Russian lawmaker and MMA star Jeff Monson in an interview with TASS on Tuesday.
“The Olympics have turned into a political arena, and the US controls it,” Monson stated. “The US demands money from the IOC if it does not comply with its directives.”
“It turned political, it’s a shame and it’s unfortunate to watch them <…> It’s unfortunate that the great athletes and great events happened, it loses its luster which makes it uninteresting for me <…> to watch or support these events when some of the best athletes aren’t there. It’s so political that it blocks people,” he said.
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.
Jeffrey William Monson, 53, known as “The Snowman,” hails from Minnesota, USA. His MMA career features a record of 60 wins, 26 losses, and two draws. He is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion. Monson announced in June that he had concluded his professional fighting career, though he hinted at the possibility of holding exhibition matches.
The US-born MMA fighter was granted Russian citizenship in May 2018 and was subsequently elected to the City Council in the Krasnogorsk District, Moscow Region, later that September. In September 2023, he was elected as a lawmaker in the State Council of Bashkortostan from the ruling United Russia party.
Monson is known for his affinity for Russia and its Soviet past. He has often entered the ring to the sounds of the Soviet national anthem. In 2016, he was awarded honorary citizenship by Abkhazia, and in 2017, he became a citizen of the Lugansk People’s Republic in the Donbass region.