the supreme body of Olympic sport looks into the fate of the Russians

The World Athletics Council, the supreme body of Olympic sport, is examining the fate of Russian athletes from Tuesday to Thursday as the debate swells on their reintegration into world sport before the Paris Games in 2024.

This news puts the possible reintegration of the Russian federation into the background after more than seven years of suspension due to a vast institutional doping scandal. Only a handful of Russians were able to participate in the athletics events of the Tokyo Games in 2021, under a neutral banner.

A lifting of sanctions in this case would have no immediate effect for athletes if World athletics continued to sanction Russia for the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Less than a year and a half from the Paris Olympics, the position of international athletics will be particularly scrutinized.

After having “recommended” in February 2022 their exclusion from international competitions, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced at the beginning of the year its desire “to explore waysto bring Russian and Belarusian athletes back into the mainstream of world sport.

Which sparked a request for “clarificationsfrom some thirty countries including France, Great Britain, Sweden, Poland, the United States and Canada.

The world body seems to want to mark out the return of Russians and Belarusians under a neutral banner, provided they have “not actively supported the war in Ukraine“. Still in phase ofdetailed consultationswith international federations, the IOC has not set any deadlines.

Coe clair et net

Another major Olympic sport, fencing, has just approved the return to competition of fencers from the two banned countries, also present these days at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in India. This led to the boycott of the competition by several nations.

The situation is urgent: as for several other sports, the qualification period for the Paris Games has already started in athletics, in particular for the marathon, the walk, the combined events, the relays and the 10,000 m.

On a clear line, the Briton Sebastian Coe, president of World athletics, has displayed since the beginning of the Russian invasion a hostile position to the return of the Russians without significant evolution of the conflict.

«As long as we believe that the integrity of sport is threatened, that Ukrainian athletes are suffering from this situation, we will not move“, he assured AFP in September 2022.

The body’s position should be made public on Thursday.

On another subject, the Council could mark the end of the long process of reintegration of the Russian federation, suspended since November 2015 following the revelations of an institutionalized doping system.

The epilogue of an endless soap opera, between acknowledgment of the fault, financial sanctions and renewal of the authorities and their practices, all monitored by a “taskforce» dedicated.

On the agenda of a busy Council, World athletics should also tighten and consolidate its eligibility criteria for the women’s category for intersex and transgender athletes.

The body has consulted its member federations in recent months with a “priority option», that of requiring a continuous reduction of testosterone levels below 2.5 nmol / L for at least 24 months, conditions more difficult than those of the two current regulations.