The International Olympic Committee authorized Russian and Belarusian athletes on Friday, December 8 to participate under a neutral banner in the Paris Games in 2024, excluding team events and as long as they did not actively support the Russian invasion of Ukraine .
Only eleven “neutral individual athletes” have so far qualified for the competition, eight Russians and three Belarusians, the IOC said in a press release, against around sixty Ukrainian athletes.
The question is crucial since the fear of seeing a Ukrainian delegation absent or very weakened in Paris has long worried the Olympic body, and would have made the presence of Russian athletes even more politically delicate, even without an anthem or flag.
Athletes banned in February 2022
After having banned Russians and Belarusians from world sport at the end of February 2022, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the IOC therefore reasoned in two stages to organize their return, explaining on numerous occasions that athletes should not « payer » for the actions of their government.
Last March, the Olympic organization first recommended that international federations reinstate Russians and Belarusians under neutral banners in their competitions, while rejecting “at an appropriate time” its decision on the Paris Olympics as well as the Milan-Cortina Winter Games in 2026.
The Olympic body took the time to evaluate the progress of the competitions, considered generally satisfactory, and to see the position of the Ukrainian government evolve, which first required its athletes to boycott any event involving Russians before soften its position this summer.
Athletics refuses to reinstate Russians
Furthermore, if the international federations followed this recommendation in a dispersed manner – athletics in particular still refuses to reinstate the Russians – the 12th Olympic Summit organized on Tuesday in Lausanne resulted in a clear signal from the sporting world.
Representatives of international federations, the 206 national Olympic committees and athletes have all called for a decision ” fast “to allow the presence in Paris of the small number of Russian and Belarusian athletes who were able to overcome the qualification obstacle.
