First European Games in Baku may be last: Austrian athletes get in accident, Russians fight with Ukrainians

Three representatives from the Austrian team, teenage synchronized swimmers, that had arrived in Baku for the European Games were hospitalized after being hit by a shuttle bus in the athletes village, Austrian Olympic officials said. Turan information agency reports that they were all put in intensive care unit and one of them is in grave state.

"The girls were walking on the sidewalk of the Olympic Village when a shuttle bus hit them," the Austrian committee said, adding that the incident happened at 8:30 a.m. One of them, Vanessa Sahinovic had multiple fractures and the other severe injuries. She was transported to Vienna on air ambulance for neurological treatment. Luna Pajer injured both of her arms. She was also taken to Vienna. The Committee says they are shocked with the accident.

Haqqin.az reports that athletes from Russia and Ukraine have fought in the Olympic Village. The group of Russian and Ukrainian athletes reportedly first started to argue which grew into melee with the athletes not being able to control their emotions. The workers of the Olympic Village separated them.

Turan also reports that the Netherlands refused to host the 2019 European Games because the government refused to allocate about 60 million euros to the original budget of 125 million euros to the National Olympic Committee of the country.

Aleksey Avdokhin published an article “The First European Games: what is it after all?” on Tribuna.com. He writes that the first European Games may become the last. The next Games planned for 2019 had been reserved by the Netherlands, but they recently rejected them as there was neither the government support nor finances. “Clearly, the decision will also depend on the legacy of Baku Games, especially on their commercial attractiveness – whether they will succeed to attract television audience, intrigue sponsors and cover the organizing expenses at least to a small degree. And above all, there are now few countries in Europe that are ready to spend money so Azerbaijan-like lavishly on something grandly incomprehensible,” Avdokhin writes.

On 12-28 June, Baku will host the first European Games under the auspices of the European Olympic Committee. According to media estimates, the Games will cost the Azerbaijani population $10 billion. However, they have become a serious headache for the locals with numerous bans and demolition of property. The preparatory works for the Games are accompanied by crackdowns and brutal repressions against dissent.