The former French biathlon star Martin Fourcade, member of the IOC and president of the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission, repeated on Wednesday that he was in principle in favor of a return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competitions. “I have always advocated a notion of openness, that is to say to treat athletes as personalities and not as part of a system from which they are often quite independent and for which they do not fight” , said the five-time Olympic champion, on the sidelines of an interview with AFP devoted to a personal project.
“Russian and Belarusian athletes should be able to compete under a neutral banner”
“As an athlete, it would have affected me enormously to be judged, not as an athlete, on what I was doing, but through the decisions of my country, even if I am French and very happy to being, I do not always support”, he added, stressing that he had “always been very clear with that”. The debate on the reintegration of Russian and Belarusian athletes, excluded from international competitions since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, remains lively. “These are discussions that I have regularly at the IOC, as part of my duties on the Athletes’ Commission”, also noted Martin Fourcade.
In February, in an English interview with the NRK channel, the French champion had already said he was in favor of their return, stressing that he was speaking in a personal capacity and that it was a question of principle. : an athlete should not be banned ‘because his president is behaving like a madman’. As such, Russian and Belarusian athletes should be able to compete under a neutral banner, he added.
The IOC has issued recommendations
Since then, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has issued recommendations to this effect, without however setting deadlines, and the return of these athletes is done in scattered order, in the light of the interpretation of the instructions and with the canvas the qualifying events for the Paris 2024 Games. All eyes are on the European Games, in Krakow, from June 21 to July 2, because they will weigh heavily in qualifying in several sports such as archery or table tennis, among those planning to reinstate Russians and Belarusians. The fencing tournament will not award any individual points in the race for Olympic qualification for athletes from both countries. Conversely, athletics has maintained its exclusion measures to this day.