The Nordic Olympic and Paralympic Committees sent a joint petition.
The IOC received a strong message. Illustration image. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
The Olympic and Paralympic committees of the Nordic countries and the national sports federations of the countries have sent a joint message to the International Olympic Committee IOC regarding the competition of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
The Finnish Olympic and Paralympic Committee is also involved. The matter is told by others, among other things Finnish Olympic Committee mixed Danish Sports Confederation.
Last March, the IOC recommended to sports federations to take individual Russian and Belarusian athletes back to the Games if they have no connections to the military and compete under neutral country codes.
Sports federations and Olympic committees met in Nuuk, Greenland, and discussed the possibility of Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in international games.
The result of the discussion was a joint message from the Nordic countries, which has been addressed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the European Olympic Committees (EOC), the Union of Olympic Committees (ANOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the European Paralympic Committees (EPC).
The message says that the situation regarding the war in Ukraine has not changed.
– Thus, we firmly stand by our position, according to which Russian and Belarusian athletes should not be given opportunities to participate in international sports competitions.
The Nordic Olympic and Paralympic Committees and sports federations say in their message that in this way they show their steadfast support to the people of Ukraine.
– Now is not the right time to consider their (Russians) return.
Behind the announcement are the Olympic and Paralympic committees and sports associations of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.