The International Olympic Committee suspended the Russian National Olympic Committee (NOC) on Thursday “with immediate effect” for having placed several organizations in occupied Ukrainian regions under its authority, the organization’s spokesperson announced. This decision automatically deprives the Russian body of Olympic funding, but has no consequences on the possible presence of Russian athletes under a neutral banner at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, which will be decided by the IOC “at the appropriate time”, he said. indicated Mark Adams to the press.
The Russian Olympic Committee denounces a “political” decision
The Russian Olympic Committee, suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), denounced Thursday a “political” and “counterproductive” decision. “The IOC has made another counterproductive and clearly politically motivated decision,” accused the Russian Olympic Committee on Telegram. The IOC had justified its choice by the integration of several organizations from occupied Ukrainian regions into the Russian committee, a “violation” of the “territorial integrity” of the Ukrainian Olympic committee according to it.
For the Olympic organization, which has shaken up its agenda and given up examining the sports program for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, it is a question of sanctioning the “violation” by the Russians of the “territorial integrity” of the Olympic committee Ukrainian, therefore of the Olympic Charter, specified Mark Adams. On October 5, the Russian NOC “unilaterally” included among its members the regional sports organizations of Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporozhye, located in eastern Ukraine occupied by the Russian army.
Reintegration of Russian athletes under neutral banner
Since the end of February 2022, the IOC has already sanctioned the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, which it considers to be a violation of the Olympic truce linked to the 2022 Beijing Olympics, by recommending to international federations to ban their competitions from the ground Russian and to ban any official Russian symbol – anthem or flag.
On the other hand, his position has varied on the participation of Russian athletes, as well as athletes from allied Belarus, in the same international competitions: after having recommended their exclusion, last March he began their reintegration into world sport, under a neutral banner, in the individual tests, and as long as they have not “actively supported the war in Ukraine”.
The question of their participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics as well as the 2026 Milan Olympics, however, remains unresolved: the IOC will decide later and on a date that suits it, Mark Adams recalled on Thursday.