A limited, reversible and already controversial return: the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday recommended the reinstatement of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international competitions, but will decide “at the appropriate time” on their participation in the Paris Olympics 2024.
If their international federation validates their return, the athletes concerned will be able to “compete as neutral individual athletes”, as long as they do not “actively support the war in Ukraine” and are not “under contract” with the army. or the security agencies of the two countries, announced to the press Thomas Bach, the boss of the IOC.
Above all, the Olympic organization recommends that this measure “can be revoked at the discretion of the federation” concerned, and was careful not to decide on the most explosive subject, that is the participation of Russians and Belarusians in the next Olympic Games.
While Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries are already threatening to boycott the 2024 Olympics in the event of Russian and Belarusian presence, the IOC will decide on this issue “at the appropriate time, at its sole discretion, and without being bound by the results of qualifying competitions”, announced the German leader, thus leaving himself complete latitude.
“A slap in the face to the Ukrainians”
But already, the German Minister of Sports considered that the return of the banished was “a slap in the face to Ukrainian athletes”. “International sport must clearly condemn Russia’s brutal war of aggression. This can only be done by completely excluding Russian and Belarusian athletes, ”judge Nancy Faeser in a press release.
Far from applauding the IOC’s decision, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdniakov, who had called for unconditional reinstatement, denounced the “unacceptable” and “discriminatory” criteria.
Contrary to its allies and its adversary, Ukraine said it was satisfied with this announcement, which does not endorse the return of Russians and Belarusians during the Olympics.
“We have succeeded in having the decision on the integration of Russians and Belarusians in the Olympic Games in 2024 be postponed”, thus welcomed on Facebook the Ukrainian Minister of Sports, Vadym Goutzaït, always eager to “work so that no “patriotic” Russian athlete “can enter international sporting arenas”.
Pressed to clarify its position, the IOC announced last December “to explore ways” to bring Russians and Belarusians back into the fold of world sport, after recommending their exclusion at the end of February 2022 due to the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, with the support of neighboring Belarus.
After four months of consultations with the entire Olympic world, the Lausanne body has chosen to leave the international federations and competition organizers with the primary responsibility of whether or not to invite athletes from the two countries, contenting themselves with “recommendations” for harmonize their approach.
The IOC executive thus suggests maintaining the exclusion of all Russian and Belarusian teams and limiting the return to competition to athletes “holding a Russian or Belarusian passport” if they compete as “individual” and under the banner neutral, respect anti-doping regulations and do not “actively” support the war in Ukraine, a criterion which promises to be difficult to assess.
fencing under tension
For Thomas Bach, the participation of Russians and Belarusians in the professional tennis or cycling circuit shows that “it already works”, including when they have to face Ukrainian opponents.
He relied above all on two principles hammered home for several months, namely “the refusal of any political interference in sport” and “the non-discrimination of any athlete”, which prevents, according to the IOC, from excluding Russians and Belarusians on the sole basis of their passport.
Left in the dark in recent weeks, the international federations had already taken up the issue in scattered order: last Thursday, that of athletics confirmed the exclusion “in the near future” of athletes from the two countries, even though its qualifying events for the next Games have begun.
Conversely, fencing became on March 10 the first Olympic sport to reinstate them from April – the start of its qualification period – “subject to possible future recommendations / decisions by the IOC”.
However, the first reactions illustrated the extent of the difficulties to be overcome: last Thursday, the German Fencing Federation thus gave up the organization of the Women’s Foil World Cup stage scheduled for early May in Tauberbischofsheim, judging that there remained “too many open questions” on the reinstatement of the excluded shooters.
A few days later, the Ukrainian Federation of the discipline announced that it would boycott any competition in which Russian and Belarusian athletes would be engaged. A threat that hovers more than ever over the 2024 Olympics.