Russian and Belarusian athletes will still be allowed to participate in the Paris Olympics next summer, albeit only individually and under a neutral flag. The International Olympic Committee decided this on Friday. The athletes who want to qualify for the quadrennial event, and their supervisors, are also not allowed to ‘actively’ support the war in Ukraine or be under contract to the (Belarusian) army. Flags, anthems and team participation are not permitted.
The IOC’s decision follows a period in which the hard line that the sports world had taken against admitting athletes from Russia and Belarus began to show more and more cracks. Immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which started just a few days after the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February 2022, sports federations worldwide showed themselves united: (Belarus) athletes were henceforth banned, partly on the express advice of the IOC .
But slowly this position began to shift in the months that followed: first individual sports associations allowed the athletes again, then the IOC adjusted its negative advice and in September the International Paralympic Committee decided that the athletes would be welcome at the Paralympic Games next year as neutral athletes.
‘Overwhelming majority’
According to the IOC, an “overwhelming majority” of athletes believe that fellow athletes should not be punished for the actions of their government. It is one of the reasons given by the IOC in support of the decision to admit (Belarusian) athletes. Another argument cited is the call from international sports associations and national Olympic committees (NOCs) to make a decision as quickly as possible to avoid confusion among athletes, the IOC says.
However, the IOC’s decision will be met with criticism. In Ukraine they already seemed to see the mood brewing recently: Minister of Sports Matvey Bidny said this week that he was “particularly concerned” about the possible participation of (Belarusian) athletes in the Games. At an earlier stage, the country threatened a boycott of the Games if the IOC decided to admit the (Belarusian) Russians under a neutral flag.
Criticism will also likely follow from the West; This was also the case after the IOC adjusted its advice earlier this year to ban (Belarusian) athletes from sporting events. Latvia previously said it would support the boycott of Ukraine if it came to that.
Eleven athletes
For Russian athletes, participating under a neutral flag will now feel familiar. This was also the case at the Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021 and the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022, albeit due to doping abuse by Russian athletes.
Despite the decision, the Russian NOC remains suspended. The IOC decided to do this after Russia recently included four occupied regions in Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – in its national sports umbrella organization. However, this suspension does not apply to individual athletes or representatives.
There are currently eleven athletes (eight from Russia, three from Belarus) who have qualified for the Games in accordance with the qualification requirements, out of a total of 4,600 athletes. For comparison, the IOC mentioned that 60 Ukrainian athletes have qualified so far.
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