The International Olympic Committee Tuesday issued daring suggestions for the progressive return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to worldwide competitions, with the IOC President Thomas Bach affirming that their involvement continues to be viable regardless of the continued armed battle in Ukraine.
The IOC Executive Board’s suggestions concern solely the return of these athletes to worldwide competitions however not the 2024 Olympics the place a separate choice might be taken at a later date, Bach mentioned.
“Sports organizations must have the sole responsibility to decide which athletes can take part in international competitions based on their sporting merits and not on political grounds or because of their passports,” Bach informed a news convention after the assembly.
The IOC had sanctioned Russia and Belarus after the February 2022 invasion however it’s now wanting to see athletes come again throughout all sports activities and have an opportunity to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
It has set out a pathway for these rivals to earn Olympic slots by way of Asian qualifying and left it as much as worldwide federations to determine on a company, however has confronted headwinds, with Ukraine threatening to boycott the Paris Games ought to they compete there, at the same time as neutrals.
“Participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports in international competitions works,” Bach had earlier mentioned in his handle at first of the IOC’s govt board assembly at its headquarters in Lausanne.
“We see this almost every day in a number of sports, most prominently in tennis but also in cycling, in some table tennis competitions.”
“We see it in ice hockey, handball we see it in football and in other leagues in the United States but also in Europe and we also see it in other continents,” he mentioned. “In none of these competitions security incidents have been happening.”
Russians and Belarusians have been competing as neutrals in some sports activities however their presence at some occasions, corresponding to tennis tournaments, has triggered indignant reactions from another athletes.
IOC suggestions
Bach mentioned the suggestions for occasions organizers and sports activities federations to observe embody Russian and Belarusian athletes can solely compete as neutrals, with no flag or anthem.
They can not participate in workforce occasions and need to have a confirmed drug testing document.
Athletes who help the struggle or are contracted to their nations’ navy or nationwide safety businesses can not participate.
These suggestions, nevertheless, don’t embody the Paris 2024 Olympics and the potential participation of Russia and Belarus, Bach mentioned.
“The IOC will take this decision at the appropriate time at its full discretion, without being bound by results of previous Olympic qualifiers,” Bach mentioned. He didn’t say when the IOC would take that call.
World Athletics, the largest Olympic crowd puller, nevertheless, final week determined to maintain Russians and Belarusians banned from all their occasions for foreseeable future attributable to struggle, going in opposition to the IOC.
A dozen nations boycotted this month’s girls’s world boxing championships in protest at their presence on the occasion whereas greater than 300 fencers wrote to Bach to ask the IOC to rethink permitting them again, calling it a “catastrophic error” ought to Russia and Belarus return.
Germany’s elite athletes’ grouping Athleten Deutschland on Tuesday additionally pitched in, known as on the IOC to ban them fully during the struggle.
“As long as the war of aggression continues, we consider a complete exclusion of Russia and Belarus to be imperative,” it mentioned in a press release, including that “the exclusion must apply to federations, officials, and unfortunately also to athletes.”
Bach mentioned politics couldn’t be part of sports activities competitions and athletes shouldn’t be punished for his or her passports.
“We will not be able to come up with a solution that pleases everyone. With this, we may have to live.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com
