The International Olympic Committee (IOC), ignoring kyiv’s call to dismiss Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, on Wednesday outlined the terms of their reintegration into world sport.
Such a decision, while Russians and Belarusians have been banned from most sporting events since the invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022, will be up to international federations, “the only authorities that can govern international competitions in their sport”, specifies the CIO in a statement.
But the Olympic body may well position itself in the second curtain, it has played a crucial role in this file from the start: after having “recommended” the exclusion of the Russians and Belarusians almost a year ago, it began in December a series of consultations to organize their return, in the name of the “unifying mission” of sport.
And its executive board, after having met in particular with representatives of athletes, international federations and national Olympic committees, urged Wednesday to “study further the way” in which the sportsmen concerned could return to competitions “under strict conditions”.
According to this roadmap proposed to the federations, Russians and Belarusians would line up “as neutral athletes”, provided they had “not actively supported the war in Ukraine” and to comply “fully with the World Anti-Doping Code” , “verifications” to the key.
Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again called on Tuesday for the exclusion of Russians from the next Olympic Games, addressing his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, “the vast majority” of interlocutors consulted by the IOC believe that no athlete “should be banned from competition on the sole basis of his passport”, insists the Olympic body.
The IOC, which has presented the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from the outset as a “protective measure” of their integrity and not as a punishment, has on the other hand reaffirmed its attachment to the “sanctions” affecting the two countries: no international competition on their soil, no official flags, anthems or symbols, and no guest representatives at international events.