The International Olympic Committee reopens the door to Russian athletes but avoids the J0 2024 – Liberation

If balancing were a sport, the members of the International Olympic Committee would be its undisputed champions. It is only necessary to note the recommendation announced this Tuesday by the government of world sport: the reintegration of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international competitions. But for the 2024 Games in Paris, it is urgent to wait. Explanation of text by Thomas Bach, IOC boss: the athletes concerned will not be able to “compete only as neutral individual athletes”provided they do not “do not actively support the war in Ukraine” and don’t be “under contract” with the military or security agencies of both countries.

Expert in the art of dissatisfying everyone (pro and anti Russians) Thomas Bach sends back a marvel of hot potato to the international federations: the participation of Russians and Belarus cannot be done “On condition that [les instances concernées, ndlr] can revoke them”. Exegetes of Thomas Bach’s thought have two hours to decipher his words. Especially since the King of Olympia is careful not to decide on the most explosive subject, the participation of Russians and Belarus in the next Olympic Games. He asks the international federations to take a decision that the IOC itself does not dare to ratify or challenge.

While Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries are already threatening to boycott the 2024 Olympics in the event of Russian and Belarusian presence, the IOC will decide on this issue “at the appropriate time, in its sole discretion, and without being bound by the results of qualifying competitions”announced the German leader, thus leaving himself complete latitude.

“A slap in the face to the Ukrainians”

It’s ‘a day of shame, for the IOC, reacted Tuesday Piotr Wawrzyk, a Polish deputy minister of Foreign Affairs. What positive happened on the side of Russia for its athletes to participate in competitions !! From Boutcha, Irpin, Gostomel!! Since the daily bombardments of civilian sites!!” he thundered on Twitter. It is “a slap in the face to Ukrainian sportsmens, got carried away Nancy Faeser, the German Minister of Sports. International sport must clearly condemn Russia’s brutal war of aggression. This can only be done by completely excluding Russian and Belarusian athletes”.

Unsurprisingly Russia also expressed its dissatisfaction with the IOC’s announcement. It demands full reinstatement of its athletes. «Criteria [participation individuelle sous bannière neutre, ndlr] announced for the return to international competitions are unacceptable. This is discrimination based on nationality.lambasted Stanislav Pozdniakov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee.

The IOC’s announcement comes a day after a joint statement by Poland, Ukraine and the three Baltic countries affirming that there was no “not a single reason to deviate from the exclusion regime for Russian and Belarusian athletes established by the IOC”following the Russian invasion. “It is not the nationality of the athletes that determines their role, but the fact that they are sponsored / supported by their governments or companies supporting the Russian regime, which continues its war of aggression against Ukraine, or even that they are directly affiliated with the Russian army,” the statement continued.

Pressed to clarify its position on this diplomatically eruptive subject, the IOC announced last December “to explore ways” to bring Russians and Belarusians back into the fold of world sport, after having recommended their exclusion at the end of February 2022 after the Russian invasion with the support of Belarus.

The IOC thus suggests maintaining the exclusion of all Russian and Belarusian teams and limiting the return to competition to athletes “holders of a Russian or Belarusian passport” if they compete as “individual” and under a neutral banner. Good luck to the controllers who will have to assess whether the athletes concerned do not “actively” support the war in Ukraine.

fencing under tension

For Thomas Bach, the participation of Russians and Belarusians in the professional tennis or cycling circuit shows that “it already works”, including when they have to face Ukrainian opponents. Above all, he relied on two principles hammered home for several months, namely “the refusal of any political interference in sport” – a great classic of international sports bodies and “the non-discrimination of any athlete”, which, according to the IOC, prevents Russians and Belarusians from being excluded solely on the basis of their passports.

Left in the dark in recent weeks, the international federations had already taken up the question in dispersed order: last Thursday, that of athletics confirmed the exclusion “in the near future” athletes from both countries, even as its qualifying events for the next Games have begun. Conversely, fencing became on March 10 the first Olympic sport to reintegrate them from April – the start of its qualification period. “subject to possible future IOC recommendations/decisions”. Here is the International Fencing Federation well advanced with the announcement of the IOC. Especially since the national federations do not necessarily align themselves with the position of their international guardianship. Thus the German Fencing Federation has given up the organization of the Women’s Foil World Cup stage scheduled for early May in Tauberbischofsheim, judging that there was still “too many open questions” on the reinstatement of excluded shooters. A few days later, the Ukrainian Federation of the discipline announced that it would boycott any competition in which Russian and Belarusian athletes would be engaged. A threat that hovers more than ever over the 2024 Olympics.