Sport now has to ask itself some tough questions

What barbaric acts should sport take a stand against? And when should it turn a blind eye? What athletes should be punished for the actions of their government? And which nationalities should get a free pass?

Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine celebrates winning gold in the women's high jump final at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Perhaps we should have known last summer, as we saw a simple act of celebration between two athletes get hijacked by the poison of geopolitics, that sport can’t always be what we want it to be.

It has long been a force for good, of course, a method to unify rather than divide, but the past month has shown us it can’t incubate itself from the wider world, the choices it made in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine throwing up some fiendishly difficult questions.