The executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved its plan on Friday to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete individually at the Paris 2024 Olympics as “neutrals” without a national flag or anthem.
Russians and Belarusians were banned from international competition following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (assisted by Belarus) in February of 2022. About a year later, in March of this year, the IOC issued recommendations paving the way for their return while stopping short of making an official decision — until today.
In order to be eligible, athletes will need to meet a strict set of criteria that includes not “actively” supporting the war in Ukraine and having no contract with the Russian or Belarusian military. Russian and Belarusian teams will also be ineligible.
The IOC said that “only a very limited number” of Russian and Belarusian athletes will qualify as neutrals through the existing qualification systems of their federations. Among the 4,600 athletes who have already qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics, there are just 11 individual neutral athletes approved so far: eight Russians and three Belarusians.
“In comparison, to date more than 60 Ukrainian athletes have qualified for Paris 2024,” the IOC said in a statement on Friday. “It is expected that the Ukrainian delegation is going to be around the same size as at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.”
Related:
- Vladimir Salnikov Believes Russia’s Chances of Competing at Paris Are ‘Close to Zero’
- Russia Will Not Pay ‘Neutral’ Olympians for Paris 2024 Participation — Medals, Maybe
Notably, neutral athletes will not have to sign a declaration condemning last year’s invasion of Ukraine. Instead, like all other athletes, they must reaffirm their commitment to respect the Olympic charter, including “the peace mission of the Olympic Movement.” In September, two-time Olympic champion swimmer Evgeny Rylov told Russian media that he’d refuse to sign a political declaration in exchange for a return to international competition.
World Aquatics decided to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to the international stage in September, and a few Belarusian swimmers competed at the final stop of the World Cup Series in Budapest in October.
According to the United Nations, more than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last year. In October, Ukraine’s minister of youth and sports said that 361 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have died in the war, adding that more than 3,000 others are currently fighting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In October, the Russian Olympic Committee lost access to IOC funding as part of an indefinite suspension for recognizing sports organizations in four regions illegally annexed from Ukraine.
Ryan Murphy and Kate Douglass furious
They aren’t even the favorites even without Russians there.
Ridiculous.
Thankfully Sebastian Coe has a spine, unlike swimming officials. Coe has already released a statement saying that Russian and Belarussian track and field athletes will not be competing in Paris, regardless of the IOC decision.
This potentially sets up the first power struggle between Bach and Coe. Bach is rumored to want to break the 12 year term limit set in place after Salt Lake City 2002, and Coe has long been mentioned as a possible successor. Even if Bach doesn’t break the term limit he is guaranteed to fight against Coe’s election, along with Putin:
https://athleticsweekly.com/athletics-news/seb-coe-you-may-see-athletes-in-paris-they-just-wont-be-in-athletics-1039973745/
Anyone who didn’t understand it would play out this way never listened to Thomas Bach or understood his devotion to Vladimir Putin, who played a major role in Bach becoming IOC president.
Now that the door is officially open Bach will quietly undertake methods to pry it open even further, to the point very few are excluded.
Russia can now escalate the war
Here go my olympic tickets. If this really happen I will not attend.
Oh no your choice not to go is really going to make the olympics fall apart please change your mind 🙄😝
How much?
I’m very happy about that (Yuri is a nickname, I’m italian btw,
so don’t accuse me of being a russian bot).
For me n.1 thing is consistency. I don’t deny even for a second the abomination
happening in Ukraine, but when other countries (US in Iraq) did something similar
NO ATHLETE was forbidden to compete, so either everyone is forbidden to compete
or none. But the worst that can happen are double standards. I hate them.
Only dishonest and inconsistent people won’t agree with that.
Even Israel right now
I agree. Even Saudi Arabia that started an illegal war against Yemen in 2015,
conflict still ongoing. I repeat. Either everyone is punished or none.
Why thinking differently about this matter ? Consistency first.
Will Israeli athletes be brave enough to go to Paris in 2024? There is a sizeable Muslim population there, and we may be looking at a Munich ‘72 scenario on steroids.
I can’t say anyone is really surprised by this! The IOC hated what it was forced to do and is now prying open the door to get the athletes of Russia/Belarus in. NO athlete will be excluded from these countries by the time Paris 2024 starts – they simply have to “play nice” with a charter which no one reads or follows, in full.
Historic note: Shall we now revive the Russia vs. TEAM USA swimming competition? We’ll simply call all of the non-American athletes as “swimmers from a country you all know that has a leader whose name rhymes with ‘Rad’!'”
This was the last condition holding back 2024 Paris as the greatest swimming Olympics ever. Glad they actually let it fall through