The International Olympic Committee on Friday authorized the participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics of Russian and Belarusian athletes under a neutral banner, excluding team events and if they did not actively support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Only eleven “neutral individual athletes” have so far qualified for the competition, eight Russians and three Belarusians, the IOC said in a press release, compared to around sixty Ukrainian athletes.
Russia denounces “discriminatory” conditions
Russia denounced on Friday as “discriminatory” the conditions put forward by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the participation of Russian athletes in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, which notably provide that they compete under a neutral banner.
“The conditions are discriminatory and go against sporting principles. They harm the Olympic Games themselves, and not Russian sport. This approach is absolutely unacceptable,” said Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin, quoted by the TASS news agency. However, he indicated that Russian athletes who have obtained the right to participate in the 2024 Olympics “will probably participate”. “We always support our own, they are our athletes, the members of our sports family,” he continued.
Athletics still refuses to reinstate Russians
The question is crucial since the fear of seeing a Ukrainian delegation absent or very weakened in Paris has long worried the Olympic body, and would have made the presence of Russian athletes even more politically delicate, even without an anthem or flag. After having banned Russians and Belarusians from world sport at the end of February 2022, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the IOC therefore reasoned in two stages to organize their return, explaining on numerous occasions that athletes should not ” pay” for the actions of their government.
Last March, the Olympic organization first recommended to the international federations to reinstate the Russians and Belarusians under a neutral banner in their competitions, while postponing “to an appropriate time” its decision on the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris as well as on the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina. The Olympic body took the time to evaluate the progress of the competitions, considered generally satisfactory, and to see the position of the Ukrainian government evolve, which first required its athletes to boycott any event involving Russians before soften its position this summer.
Furthermore, if the international federations have followed this recommendation in scattered order, athletics in particular still refuses to reinstate the Russians. This Friday, the president of the International Athletics Federation, Sebastian Coe, affirmed that there will be no Russian or Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Olympics: “”You may see Russian or Belarusian athletes under neutral flag in Paris, but it will not be in athletics,” Sebastian Coe said during a video conference. “The position of our sport remains unchanged, it is a firm position,” he added.