If they are present at the Paris 2024 Games, will Russian athletes be able to participate in the opening and closing ceremonies of the event? This is the question that must be answered by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) convened in Lausanne on March 19 and 20.
On the eve of this meeting, the president of the body Thomas Bach remains straight in his boots. In a daily interview The world, the leader gave no sign of softening the positions of his organization, defined at the end of September 2023. The IOC then authorized the participation in the Games of Russian athletes on an individual basis – teams are therefore excluded – and under a neutral banner. But athletes must also meet certain conditions, including not supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and having no ties to the Russian military or security agencies.
The IOC deplores “the aggressiveness of the Russian government”
Moscow has since denounced these conditions, deeming them “humiliating and discriminatory”. Thomas Bach never fails to reaffirm them and emphasizes “that the aggressiveness of the government (Russian) grows day by day, against the IOC, against the Games, against me (…). It ranges from “fascist” to “destroyer of the Games and the Olympic movement”. And it all comes from Russian officials”.
Suffice to say that the IOC and its executive board will not be inclined to concessions. The International Paralympic Committee has already decided to exclude Russian representatives from the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. The IOC could follow, for the sake of consistency. The body must also decide on the structure which will be responsible for monitoring athletes’ compliance with the conditions of participation established by the IOC.
It should be remembered that the IOC “invites” the athletes, but in coordination with the international federations. They are the ones who first decide whether or not the Russian champions will participate, by first assessing the required conditions. The International Athletics Federation, for example, has been very harsh with Russian athletes since the institutionalized doping scandals revealed ten years ago. But not everyone necessarily shows the same zeal. Hence the IOC’s requirement for an additional and independent filter which therefore remains to be specified.
The threat of a boycott
How many Russian athletes will ultimately be able to compete? Difficult to answer precisely, especially since the selections in many disciplines are far from over. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph English on Sunday March 17, the vice-president of the IOC, the Australian John Coates, estimated “that there will perhaps be no more than 40 Russian athletes in Paris”. Such a workforce would be very small compared to the 335 champions of the Russian delegation competing in Tokyo in 2021 under the banner of their Olympic committee, who had brought home 71 medals (including 20 gold).
After the final clarifications from the IOC, it is the reactions of Moscow which will then be scrutinized. On March 13, Russian sports minister Oleg Matytsin certainly assured that it was necessary “as much as possible preserve the possibility of dialogue and participation in competitions”. But previously, it was mainly the threats of boycott that were agitated by the Kremlin. Back to 1984, the era of the waning Cold War when the Soviet Union and its allies refused the trip to Los Angeles? “A boycott is never a good thing”comments Thomas Bach in The worldwhile reaffirming “uncompromising when it comes to punishing those who violated the Olympic Charter”. The series is not over, but the possibilities for a final twist are increasingly limited.
