At the Jio World Center in the Indian city of Mumbai, where guests of the 141st summit of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are welcomed in the central lobby with life-size elephants made of flowers, two chairs remain empty these days: those of Russian IOC members Shamil Tarpishchev (former tennis player and chairman of the Russian Tennis Federation) and Jelena Isinbayeva (former pole vault champion).
Officially, the reason for the two’s absence is unknown, including at the IOC, the website reported Inside the Games. The two Russians are on the list of twelve IOC members who have to be absent from India these days for various personal and work reasons. But the fact that they are not there is difficult to separate from the problematic situation the Olympic family has found itself in less than a year before the Summer Games in Paris.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine still hangs like a thick cloud over the sports world. When the war started more than a year and a half ago, just a few days after the Winter Games in Beijing, Russian and Belarusian athletes were almost immediately unanimously banned from international sports tournaments, after explicit advice from the IOC.
In the period that followed, this attitude shifted: first individual sports federations allowed (Belarusian) athletes to participate again, and in March this year the IOC adjusted its advice. From now on, (Belarusian) athletes should be allowed to participate in tournaments again, albeit under a neutral flag. At the end of last month, the International Paralympic Committee also decided to do so: athletes from Russia and Belarus will be welcome at the Paralympic Games next year under a neutral flag.
Suspension
The IOC has not yet made a final decision on the participation of athletes from the two countries in the Paris Games. What undoubtedly plays a role is that in the spring there was fierce criticism of the adjusted advice from the IOC. In the Western world, most countries, led by a Ukrainian lobby, are in favor of completely excluding Russia and Belarus. Ukraine has threatened a boycott if that doesn’t happen.
In the meantime, Russia is also not standing still. It started a lawsuit against the IOC over lost revenue; the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) says that, according to contractual agreements, it is still owed 8 million dollars (7.5 million euros) in marketing funds from the IOC. Russia also recently included four occupied regions in Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – into its national sports umbrella organization. The ROC was subsequently suspended indefinitely by the IOC.
However, this suspension does not apply to individual athletes, who are still allowed to compete under a neutral flag. IOC members Tarpishchev and Isinbayeva are also not affected, because they are “not representatives of Russia at the IOC, but representatives of the IOC in Russia,” as IOC President Thomas Bach put it to Reuters. In addition, Tarpishchev and Isinbayeva would have no “contractual ties” with the Russian army and would not have spoken out in favor of the invasion, the IOC ethics committee concluded after an investigation. This is striking, given that Isinbayeva has received several military awards and has been photographed several times in military uniform.
No commotion
In theory, the Russian duo could attend the IOC summit in Mumbai last Sunday, Monday and this Tuesday. At this meeting, it was decided, among other things, to add five new sports to the program of the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and it was announced that the sled sports during the Winter Games in Milan in 2026 will take place in Austria or Switzerland, due to excessive construction costs of a ice canal in Italy.
But Tarpishchev and Isinbayeva decided to stay away, possibly to avoid commotion. At the Congress of National Olympic Committees in Seoul earlier this year, the presence of the (Belarusian) delegations led to disagreement. Several countries, including the Netherlands, sent open letters expressing their disapproval, Latvia boycotted the congress and the British delegation, already landed in the South Korean capital, decided to attend the meetings virtually.
The Russian-Ukrainian issue has also hardly been discussed in Mumbai. The conflict is not on the agenda, IOC members do not bring it up. Just as IOC President Bach likes it, as a great supporter of keeping sports and politics separated as much as possible. The German has successfully managed to move the hot potato further forward. It is still not known when the decision will be made about participation in Paris, but the IOC has said it will be “closer to the Games” – which start on July 26 next year.
Perhaps the IOC hopes that something will change in the conflict that will make the choice easier. If that does not happen, there will come a time when Bach and his Olympic family will no longer be able to avoid taking a position on this sensitive issue.