Ukrainian sports lawyer Yuriy Yurchenko has filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) seeking to overturn last month’s decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) permitting Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate at the Paris 2024 Olympics as neutral athletes this summer.
The appeal asks the CAS to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in any capacity at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Additionally, it argues that the IOC should prohibit Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing under their nation’s flags for life. The appeal also requests that Russian and Belarusian fans be banned from attending international competitions for life.
“If they were banned and suspended for violating anti-doping rules, then the international rules and borders of Ukraine and their violations are no less important and valuable than the fight against doping sports,” Yurchenko wrote. However, Russian athletes were still allowed to compete under a neutral flag at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after their country was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The Ukrainian appeal concludes by requesting a sole arbitrator for the case.
This week, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine announced that it was no longer accepting IOC Solidarity Fund payments due to Russian and Belarusian athletes’ inclusion in some international competitions. The IOC Solidarity Fund was established by the IOC Executive Committee along with the European Olympic Committee to provide humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian Olympic community following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
“Thanks to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Finance, the athletes are fully provided for next year,” said Vadim Gutzeit, who runs the NOC of Ukraine. “For the purchase of equipment, equipment, training camps. Therefore, there is no point in this, it is not necessary.”
Last November, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) appealed to the CAS to overturn its indefinite suspension dealt out by the IOC.
The IOC stripped the ROC of funding last October after claiming the organization breached the Olympic charter by absorbing Olympic Councils in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — four regions that have been illegally annexed from Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing war. The IOC’s executive board determined that move “violated the territorial integrity” of Ukraine’s national Olympic committee (NOC).
Should we expect a similar attack regarding Israel’s athletes participation in Paris? I’m in complete support of Israel, but thousands and thousands of protestors all around the globe are definitely not
Politics will always be a part of international sports. But sports, and specifically the Olympics, should always strive to be an arena where differences are settled on the playing field. That is the only reason any of this means anything. If sports are just an extension of the real battlefield, then why should we bother with the metaphorical battlefield at all?
Russia is country terrorist. Russian people, including sportsmen is fully responsible for attacks on Ukrainians. Ban Russia now
They are now retesting samples from 2015 and 2016. To nobody’s surprise, a Russian retested positive and a few days ago was stripped of her gold medal from 2015 European Indoor Championships. The Rio retesting will focus first on athletes who are still competing and eyeing Paris. It’s going to look more and more ridiculous as additional Russians are stripped in forthcoming months, yet Thomas Bach and the IOC use the Sergeant Schultz approach.
As I predicted, the Russians have accelerated their attacks on Ukraine, after receiving the window from the IOC. Many of the leading Ukrainian athletes have done a good job spotlighting those attacks, which otherwise don’t receive much attention anymore.
“Russia is bombing Ukraine? That’s old… Read more »
bach is still bitter about west germany’s decision to boycott the 1980 olympics. wouldn’t be surprised to see him reuse his “solidarity” speech from tokyo, this time spotlighting how inclusive 2024 is by allowing russian athletes to compete
This feels like a deliberate reach to maybe try to anchor into a better negotiating position. Obviously requests to ban Russia from competing for life are ridiculous, and banning any Russian fans from attending any international sporting competitions forever is never going to happen.