Dhe German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) is in favor of excluding Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions. In the past few weeks, the association has exchanged views with member organizations, athletes’ representatives and business partners and has received advice from experts from politics and science, according to a statement from the association on Friday.
A legal opinion was also commissioned. According to this, the (re)admission should not lead to Ukrainians “being inhibited from exercising their own freedom rights in the context of international sports competitions.” In addition, an exclusion “makes a contribution to peace policy”.
“Continue for Exclusion”
“The feedback we received in our deliberations strengthens our previous position in the Presidium: We are still in favor of the exclusion. We will now make these findings, in particular the legal opinion, which expresses the multidimensionality of human rights considerations, available to the IOC for its consultations,” explained DOSB President Thomas Weikert.
The statement left open whether the DOSB would stick to its earlier position that athletes from Russia and Belarus should be allowed to take part in the 2024 Summer Games as long as they were not members of the army and had been appropriately checked for doping.
The DOSB rejects a boycott of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The only victims of such a boycott are the athletes.
