The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering permitting Russian athletes to participate in the Paris 2024.
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The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering permitting Russian athletes to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympics. However, those who openly support the conflict with Ukraine or are in the armed forces will be disqualified. No deadline has been set for the board to decide whether or not to include Russia and Belarus in the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. Athletes who publicly support Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine and those who have contracts with the armed forces of Belarus or Russia should be prohibited, according to the IOC. The IOC further mandated that during all competitions, athletes and the people who support them shall refrain from engaging in any behavior or speaking in any language that refers to the Russian or Belarusian national symbols.
Kaveh Mehrabi, the director of the IOC’s department for athletes, said that the appropriate authorities should take rigorous action to enact these regulations. “In an event of any athlete failing to respect the strict conditions of participation, the International Federation and sports event organizers concerned should immediately remove them from the competition and suspend them from any further competitions,” he said. The IOC has suggested that teams of athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports be disallowed from competing and that only neutral, single athletes be permitted to participate in events.
Russia’s prospects of winning medals would be drastically reduced if International Federations adopted these suggestions. The Russian Olympic Committee brought home 71 medals from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and over half of those medals were won by representatives of the military and law enforcement. Fencer Sofya Velikaya, an Armed Forces captain who won team gold and silver in the individual event in Tokyo, has already indicated that she will not compete in the Olympics unless Russia’s flag and anthem are displayed. Vitalina Batsarashkina, who won two gold medals and one silver in shooting at the Games, risks penalties since she is a lieutenant in the National Guard.
The IOC recommendations may be readily disregarded due to fears that it will be impossible to determine who supports Russia and Belarus’ war unless they have publicly said that they do so. The organization has come under fire for holding off on making a judgment about the participation of the two nations in Paris 2024. The organization has received criticism for its refusal to make a decision on the two countries’ participation in Paris 2024. “We are not kicking [the decision] down the road,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “We are not waiting. We all would like the war to end now and this is what we are calling for, but as you can see from all the reasons we are giving the conditions are not related to the development of the war they are related to the respect for the Olympic Charter and the Olympic Values.”
Russian soldiers who have previously fought in Ukraine should be permitted to participate in Paris 2024, according to UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights Alexandra Xanthaki. She claimed that only Russians who were directly involved in crimes against humanity or war propaganda should be prohibited from participating in international sports. The IOC, however, is currently considering the issue and has not yet reached a conclusion. After being barred from the 2018 Winter Olympics as a result of a state-sponsored doping conspiracy, Russia was permitted to participate in Tokyo 2020 under the auspices of the Russian Olympic Committee. The IOC has received criticism for how it has handled the situation, with some saying that the organization is not doing enough to combat doping.
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