The governments of 34 nations have asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to clarify the concept of “neutrality” in the question of a possible admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to the Summer Olympics in Paris.
“We are very concerned about how it is possible for Russian and Belarusian Olympic athletes to compete as ‘neutrals’ when they are directly funded and supported by their states,” read the statement released by the British government on Monday.
In addition to Great Britain, the signatories to the letter include Germany, the USA, France and Canada. The statement is the result of a summit meeting in London earlier this month, which was also attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Until these fundamental issues and the significant lack of clarity and concrete details of a workable ‘neutrality’ model are resolved, we do not agree to Russian and Belarusian athletes being allowed to compete again,” the letter said .
“These strong concerns must be addressed by the IOC”
In particular, the “strong connections and affiliations between Russian athletes and the Russian military” make the state coalition skeptical. “These strong concerns,” the alliance continued, “must be addressed by the IOC.”
The IOC recently stated that it was examining a “way” to enable Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paris Games under a neutral flag.
On Monday it made it clear that there was still no decision regarding whether Russia and Belarus would participate in the Olympics. Only a “primary concept for possible conditions of participation is currently being examined”. The Order of the Rings reacted to a resolution of the European Parliament.