(Sports news) The IOC has put forth a recommendation that Russian and Belarusian athletes compete as neutrals in the 2024 Paris Olympics but the recommendation only extends to individual athletes and not teams. The International Olympic Committee’s executive board has told international federations and event organisers that athletes and support personnel who actively support the war in Ukraine, or who are contracted to the military, should not be permitted to compete.
IOC president Thomas Bach said “Participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports in international competitions works. We see this almost every day in a number of sports, most prominently in tennis but also in cycling, in some table tennis competitions. We see it in ice hockey, handball, we see it in football and in other leagues in the United States but also in Europe and we also see it in other continents. In none of these competitions security incidents have been happening.”
The IOC said that it was considering 70 other ongoing armed conflicts and added that national Olympic committees in those areas were not requesting exclusion of athletes. Ukraine’s sports minister Vadym Guttsait said on Friday that the IOC had “double standards” for competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics. As things stand, the IOC’s sanctions on Russia and Belarus “remain firmly in place” which means no international sporting events can be organised in either of these countries and their flags, national anthems or national symbols cannot be used.
UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer wrote a letter to UK chief executives of the IOC’s 13 worldwide partners saying the regimes “must not be allowed to use sport for their propaganda purposes”. “Sports organisations must have the sole responsibility to decide which athletes can take part in international competitions based on their sporting merits and not on political grounds or because of their passports,” said the IOC on Tuesday. Ukraine has threatened to boycott the 2024 Paris Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete while a number of countries have threatened to follow suit.
Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said: “We must not close our eyes to reality. Russian sport is centrally managed by the Kremlin. The Russian regime does not know what fair play is. Its athletes do not belong in the Olympic Games.” Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, said the recommendations were “absolutely unacceptable”.
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