IOC recommends banning Russians from world sport

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended Monday, February 28, to ban Russians and Belarusians from sports competitions, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A symbolic but strong measure, it also withdrew “Olympic Order” to all senior Russian officials, starting with President Vladimir Putin.

In a press release, the IOC Executive Board “recommends international sports federations and organizers of sports events not to invite or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and official representatives in international competitions”. The IOC says it made this decision “to protect the integrity of international sports competitions and for the safety of participants”.

Monday, before this press release from the IOC, the International Ski Federation (FIS), had however announced its desire not to exclude Russian athletes from its competitions.

Yes “for organizational or legal reasons”it is not possible to prevent the arrival of Russian sportsmen, the IOC asks that they cannot be “allowed to participate under the name of Russia or Belarus”.

This is what had been done, for example before this communication from the IOC, FIFA, the world football body, or even the International Biathlon Union: the latter announced on Saturday that it did not authorize “the representation of Russia and Belarus at its events”, while inviting “biathletes from these countries to compete as neutral athletes”.

In the aftermath, the Russian biathlon federation decided to withdraw its team from the World Cup events, “in order not to expose Russian athletes to the risk of humiliation and to eliminate the threat to their safety in the remaining stages”.

The question of the participation, or not, of Russian athletes is particularly urgent for the Paralympic Games, which begin Friday in Beijing. On Monday, the president of the German Paralympic Committee, Julius Beucher, said he did not want Russian athletes to participate in the competitions: “I can’t imagine the Russians parading at the opening ceremony”he explained to Die Welt.

Break with its traditional neutrality

“When, in very extreme circumstances”implement these measures “is not possible in the short term for organizational or legal reasons, the IOC Executive Board leaves it to the organization concerned to find its own way”depending on the instance, which “focused particularly on the upcoming Paralympic Winter Games [du 4 au 13 mars] » and “reiterated its full support for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Games”.

Coming out of its traditional neutrality, the IOC had already encouraged, on Friday February 25, the international sports federations to cancel or relocate the sporting events organized in Russia or in Belarus, an ally of Moscow. Believing that these two countries violated the Olympic truce, the IOC also requested that neither the Russian flag nor the Belarusian flag be hoisted at an international sporting event and that the anthems of these two countries not be played.

The IOC hailed “the many calls for peace made by athletes, sports officials and members of the global Olympic community. The IOC especially admires and supports the calls for peace by Russian athletes”.

Another hot topic, the 2022 World Cup play-offs: Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic, potential opponents of the Russians, have all said they intend not to face them, even if their opponents line up under a name other than that of their countries, as proposed by FIFA.