IOK admits Russian and Belarusian athletes in Paris

The International Olympic Committee is allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in the 2024 Summer Games. If you castigate it for this, you are falling short.

The IOK and its German President Thomas Bach are making another decision that will be talked about.

Imago

The speculation lasted a long time, but the outcome of the process was in principle certain from the start: Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to take part in the Summer Olympics in Paris next summer. Only teams, officials and political dignitaries from the two nations remain banished. The IOK communicated this decision on Friday afternoon after the meeting of its executive committee. This follows the recommendation that the international sports associations made to the IOK after their summit at the beginning of the week.

As at the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Tokyo (2021) and at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang (2018) and Beijing (2022), the Russians will compete as independent athletes without national symbols such as flags or national anthem. At that time, this was a consequence of state-organized doping at various sporting events, such as the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

One can certainly interpret the latest IOK decision as discouragement or even as a kowtow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for almost two years. Various national Olympic committees had pushed for a total exclusion of the Russians – including Swiss Olympic.

The Swiss mission leader Ralph Stöckli told the NZZ at the end of August: “Our position is clear: Russians and Belarusians should be excluded from all competitions. Also from the Olympic Games. But we will accept the IOC’s decision and leave it to the athletes whether they want to take part in the Games under these conditions.”

Elsewhere, the decisive stance had recently cracked. The international sports associations pushed for a decision and increasingly for the Russians to be readmitted. Even the German Olympic Sports Confederation, which had long taken a strict line against the Russians, suddenly changed course. The International Tennis Federation has been allowing Russian athletes to take part in its tournaments again for a long time.

The only thing that remains consistent is the athletics association, which wants to stick to the Russians’ ban. In Rio in 2016, long jumper Darja Klishina was the only Russian athlete, and in Tokyo in 2021 there were ten Russians at the start again. But at that time the exclusion only affected doping cases.

Among the 4,600 athletes who have so far met the qualifying criteria for the Paris Games are 8 Russians, 3 Belarusians and 60 Ukrainians. Like the other athletes, they will all have to sign a declaration committing themselves to supporting the peaceful intentions of the charter. Nobody will refuse to do that. But this explanation is nothing more than a piece of paper.

Simply castigating the IOK for its lenient attitude still falls short. Outside of team sports, Russia and Belarus have long since been integrated into international sports again. The IOC has repeatedly stated that athletes cannot be held responsible for the actions of their government. That’s right. The government, in turn, will still exploit every Russian medal in Paris for propaganda purposes. It would be better not to have given her this opportunity.