The sports committee of the Russian Olympic Committee (COR) yesterday lifted the conditions imposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Russians and Belarusians to return to international competitions, after the ban imposed in 2022 due to the military invasion of Ukraine. “We are convinced that the entry of Russian and Belarusian athletes should only be on the basis of equality with the rest of the participants of the Olympic movement,” refers to the official statement, made public by COR.
In this sense, Russian athletes do not accept any “additional condition, order, restriction or criterion”, including in particular the neutrality status put forward by the IOC, as they consider it discriminatory. This sports committee therefore notes that the criteria of the International Olympic Committee are “excessive, unfounded and discriminatory” as they relate to citizenship, the modality applied and the structure to which the athlete belongs.
At issue is the decision to bar athletes associated with the military and security forces, as was the case with CSKA Moscow, a club whose athletes collected 45 of the 71 Russian medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Also criticized is the deprivation of national symbols, such as the flag and national anthem, as well as the non-competing by teams. “In our opinion, a dangerous precedent is being set, in which no athlete in the world can be sure that his civil rights will be respected in the future,” adds the statement of Russian athletes, who consider themselves “hostages of political games ” and say they are still the target of a “humiliating” selection.
In late March, the IOC recommended that international federations and competition organizers approve the participation “individually and as neutral” of athletes “with Russian and Belarusian passports”. For Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, one of the conditions for authorizing the return to competition is permission to “not have actively supported the war”, nor to be a member of the armed forces or security organizations of Russia or Belarus.
Ukraine has made its position very clear from the beginning of this process, arguing that Russia should be excluded from the 2024 Paris Olympics because it has broken the Olympic truce three times (in 2008, 2014 and 2022) and also because of its presence in the national teams of athletes from the army or security forces. By the way, last week Volodymir Zelensky, president of Ukraine, stressed that “it is important that, as long as the aggression continues, the Russian state has no access whatsoever to sports and the Olympic stages. In particular, the Paris 2024 Games”. A statement, which joins another, in February, admitted the possibility that Ukraine could boycott the Games if Russia is allowed to participate.
It should be noted that the Kiev government indicated that the Russian invasion caused the deaths of 262 athletes, more than 40,000 of whom had to seek refuge in other countries.
Source: DN
