Indonesia cancels Team Israel visas; IOC tells them "No talks until you promise…"; FIG does 0.

[JaJa]

USA has broken exactly those rules. People are just picking and choosing with double standards which countries are allowed to so do, and which countries they are going to decide to get angry about being excluded or not.

That’s not true. Does the WTT have a relevant rule? If so, I think we would all agree that the US should be banned from hosting future events. And we would have said so had you posted this previously. (As far as your other example, the US has no obligation to allow Senegalese athletes to come here to train for an event in Ivory Coast, so that is not relevant to this discussion)

 

[MaryClare]

The US quite often refuses visas to athletes and/or coaches on the basis that there’s a chance they may not go home. Either by illegally overstaying or by applying for asylum

This is why Russia stopped sending gymnasts to the woga classic, because the coaches were often denied visas.

The Israeli gymnasts were not denied Indonesian visas because Indonesia believed they may try to illegally overstay their visas or claim asylum whilst there.

 

[Aeris]

Denying someone because you're scared they may claim asylum is hardly a morally strong position. And what does it matter what the country's personal reason is, if the sport says athletes aren't supposed to be excluded from international events if they or their nation haven't violated any rules within the sport? It's still the exact same thing, in effect, of the country not complying. Why are we even talking about each sport's individual rules, when the actual topic is the IOC and how they should view a certain country? If they really care about inclusion then they should care about all cases of it. USA has excluded way more athletes / higher percentage of athletes from attending events.

 

[OnlyBeansOnToast]

Anyone can google and see lots of examples. Who knows how many people total have been affected, but definitely a large number. Here's some others in addition to the couple that were just posted:

Senegal women's hoops team denied U.S. visas

The prime minister of Senegal says the country's women's basketball team has canceled plans to train in the U.S. after visa applications of five players and seven officials were not approved.

www.espn.com

Brazilian table tennis star denied entry to US due to having competed in Cuba

Brazil’s Hugo Calderano, the 2025 World Cup champion, will miss this month’s WTT US Smash in Las Vegas after a visa issue linked to a past trip to Cuba

www.theguardian.com

There are many sports that never get primetime coverage, and gaming competitions, inherently all of those events could be deemed as not being "major". Since of course money and publicity are all that matter to society, not the human work/achievement of a particular thing.

Neither of these examples are anything like the situation with Indonesia, though. One was a training camp - you don't have to go to the US to train, you do have to go to the worlds to compete at the worlds. The other is an unfortunate red tape mess where an individual athlete has been caught out by visa rules and didn't have time to rectify it. Other players from Brazil are still taking part, there is no blanket ban. The Indonesian government have invited the world of gymnastics to their house, then refused to admit the Israelis because they don't like Israel.

I'm no fan of the current US administration or its immigration and visa policies, and I can absolutely see various people in the White House citing Indonesia's actions as a precedent that allows them to do the same at next summer's World Cup or at LA2028 (which is one of the ways the Indonesian government has been spectacularly dumb). But right now you're comparing apples and oranges.

 

[Aeris]

An athlete was prohibited from entering the country because they had a trip to Cuba (a country on the ban list) on their passport. How is that different? USA government said "we don't like that you went to this country, so you're out."