Andreas Zagklis, secretary general of the international basketball federation (FIBA), clarified this Thursday during his visit to Villeneuve-d’Ascq the position of FIBA regarding a possible return of Russian and Belarusian athletes studied by the international Olympic committee. for the next Paris Games.
“The FIBA office extended our protective measures in November (suspension of Russian and Belarusian athletes) until the end of April, when the next meeting of our office will be held, said Andreas Zagklis in response to a question from L’Équipe. There are two very specific elements to basketball. The first is that we are a team sport. Also, the notion of neutral athletes is not directly applicable to a neutral team. This concept requires a lot of work. And that’s something we talk about regularly with the IOC. »
“The second element, continues the boss of FIBA, is that for basketball, the Olympic qualifications started a long time ago. For example for women, the gateway is the Women’s Euro and neither Russia nor Belarus will participate. This is also the case for the Belarusian men’s team. There is a chance that we will announce the possibility for Russia to participate in an Olympic pre-qualifying tournament, but a decision will be made in April. As a good member of the IOC, we collaborate regularly with them and we have discussions with the association of Olympic federations (ASOIF) for a common position. But, for us, nothing has changed in the last three months. »
