As announced, the ROC, the National Olympic Committee of Russia, is appealing its suspension by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). After the sports associations of four partially annexed Ukrainian regions were integrated into Russian sports structures, the IOC executive decided on October 12 in Mumbai to suspend the ROC “with immediate effect”. The reason given was a “breach of the Olympic Charter”.
The annexation of the associations and organizations of the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk violated the “territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine,” the IOC justified. The admission of the sports associations of the Crimean peninsula, which was stolen in violation of international law in 2014, by the ROC in 2016 did not result in a suspension by the IOC.
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The ROC calls for its resumption by the IOC with recognition of all associated rights. Yelena Isinbayeva and Shamil Tarpishchev, both IOC board members of the ROC, were not sanctioned by the IOC. The suspension means the ROC is cut off from IOC funding. Regardless, IOC President Thomas Bach continues to aim for Russian athletes to take part in the Summer Olympics in Paris next summer as so-called “individual neutral athletes”.
