IOC issues recommendations on RUS/BLR athletes

[gsk8]

Following a request by the 11th Olympic Summit, IOC issues recommendations for International Federations and international sports event organisers on the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport in international competitions

Full Press Conference

Following this request, the IOC EB today issues to IFs and international sports event organisers the following recommendations:

1. Athletes with a Russian or a Belarusian passport must compete only as Individual Neutral Athletes.
2. Teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport cannot be considered.
3. Athletes who actively support the war cannot compete. Support personnel who actively support the war cannot be entered.
4. Athletes who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies cannot compete. Support personnel who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies cannot be entered.
5. Any such Individual Neutral Athlete, like all the other participating athletes, must meet all anti-doping requirements applicable to them and particularly those set out in the anti-doping rules of the IFs.
6. The sanctions against those responsible for the war, the Russian and Belarusian states and governments, must remain in place:
   1. No international sports events organised or supported by an IF or NOC in Russia or Belarus.
   2. No flag, anthem, colours or any other identifications whatsoever of these countries displayed at any sports event or meeting, including the entire venue.
   3. No Russian and Belarusian government or state official can be invited to or accredited for any international sports event or meeting.

(Please see the detailed Recommended Conditions of Participation for Athletes and Athlete Support Personnel with a Russian or Belarusian Passport in International Sports Competitions Organised by the International Federations and International Sports Event Organisers)

No decision on Paris 2024 or Milano Cortina 2026 participation

 

[Fluture]

Realistically, though how would this even work in a sport like figure skating? How would these "neutral athletes" qualify, let alone gain spots? The Grand Prix is more like tennis in that it's based on World standing, but Worlds/Euros? Athletes at e.g. worlds automatically gain spots for their national team. If there's no team aspect allowed, who would they earn the spots for? Unless they go with a "team neutral" which would just be another variation of the ROC/OAR circus and not do anything towards true neutrality.

Also, as others have said, how can the Russian/Belarusian athletes even submit themselves independently? The skaters/athletes likely to go to international competitions are on the national team, thus supported by their fed. And, who would decide which athlete to send? If it's based on Nationals — which is organized by the Russian/Belarusian federation — well, there you go, you already have a problem.

Not to mention that doing background checks on all athletes seems like an insane amount of bureaucracy — who'd be responsible for that? The ISU? Don't make me laugh.

Basically, they answered nothing and just added another dozen of questions. Probably, so they can wash their hands off the problem and hand it over to the individual organizations. I wonder what the ISU is going to come up with and how the athletes are going to react if/when the Russians/Belarusians are allowed back.

 

[klena]

From the Russian Olympic Committee statement - the announced parameters and criteria for the return of Russians to international competitions are absolutely unacceptable.

 

[icewhite]

Realistically, though how would this even work in a sport like figure skating? How would these "neutral athletes" qualify, let alone gain spots? The Grand Prix is more like tennis in that it's based on World standing, but Worlds/Euros? Athletes at e.g. worlds automatically gain spots for their national team. If there's no team aspect allowed, who would they earn the spots for? Unless they go with a "team neutral" which would just be another variation of the ROC/OAR circus and not do anything towards true neutrality.

Also, as others have said, how can the Russian athletes even submit themselves independently? The skaters/athletes likely to go to international competitions are on the national team, thus supported by their fed. And, who would decide which athlete to send? If it's based on Nationals — which is organized by the Russian federation — well, there you go, you already have a problem.

Not to mention that doing background checks on all athletes seems like an insane amount of bureaucracy — who'd be responsible for that? The ISU? Don't make me laugh.

Basically, they answered nothing and just added another dozen of questions. Probably, so they can wash their hands off the problem and hand it over to the individual organizations. I wonder what the ISU is going to come up with and how the athletes are going to react if/when the Russians are allowed back.

Something I could imagine: Hold a special qualifier event where certain minimums need to be reached. Then on the base of their results at Challenger events and GPs give them spots based on minimums for worlds and Euros. Each athlete earns the spot for himself, but not more than 3 neutral athletes are allowed at each event.
Of course they are still supported by their national fed. If the fed decides to take away their funding if they compete as neutral athletes that cannot be helped. It could be an incentive for athletes to go get another (sports) citizenship.
A special background check seems too much for me. Unfortunately there have been athletes (from many countries) with all kinds of outragous (political) opinions competing in the past - I would only "count" actual attending of rallies and clear and public support of the war - and react if such claims are made by someone. I could imagine the fans of the sports are attentive to such public expressions. So if someone opposes the attendance with good reason the ISU could react accordingly.

I can imagine this to become difficult for the athletes in sports like fs in reality, when feds and public make it difficult for them, but nonetheless I think it is a good suggestion. The athletes have a chance to compete despite their passport. If they decide to still link their future very much to the Russian state because they fear consequences that is their decision.

There is no easy way in this.

 

[gsk8]

From the Russian Olympic Committee statement - the announced parameters and criteria for the return of Russians to international competitions are absolutely unacceptable.

Is this in response to the IOC statement? Do you have a link/source?

 

[Caliban]

Realistically, though how would this even work in a sport like figure skating? How would these "neutral athletes" qualify, let alone gain spots? The Grand Prix is more like tennis in that it's based on World standing, but Worlds/Euros? Athletes at e.g. worlds automatically gain spots for their national team. If there's no team aspect allowed, who would they earn the spots for? Unless they go with a "team neutral" which would just be another variation of the ROC/OAR circus and not do anything towards true neutrality.

Also, as others have said, how can the Russian/Belarusian athletes even submit themselves independently? The skaters/athletes likely to go to international competitions are on the national team, thus supported by their fed. And, who would decide which athlete to send? If it's based on Nationals — which is organized by the Russian/Belarusian federation — well, there you go, you already have a problem.

There is no such problem - rules already said - "register for competition as individual, wherever possible".

 

[Caliban]

From the Russian Olympic Committee statement - the announced parameters and criteria for the return of Russians to international competitions are absolutely unacceptable.

They want to see how exactly those criteria will be implemented also:

- Taking into account the fact that at the moment the IOC Executive Committee has postponed the decision on the participation of our athletes in the Olympic Games, we will monitor the actions of international sports federations regarding the admission of Russians to participate in competitions

 

[Caliban]

Is this in response to the IOC statement? Do you have a link/source?

Официальное заявление ОКР — Олимпийский комитет России

 

[klena]

Is this in response to the IOC statement? Do you have a link/source?

In Russian https://olympic.ru/news/breaking-news/ofitsialnoe-zayavlenie-okr-14/

 

[Alex Fedorov]

Is this in response to the IOC statement? Do you have a link/source?

https://olympic.ru/news/breaking-news/ofitsialnoe-zayavlenie-okr-14/

translate:

Now the recommendations that have been in force for more than a year have been disavowed by the International Olympic Committee, but the parameters and criteria announced for the return of Russians to international competitions are absolutely unacceptable.

Neutral status is an obvious discrimination based on nationality, a violation of basic human and civil rights, which has been repeatedly pointed out over the past few months by international humanitarian experts, including UN human rights experts. It is significant that their position is almost completely ignored.

We also categorically disagree with the application of any additional doping test procedures to Russian athletes. The restrictions imposed by the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the case of WADA v. RUSADA expired in December last year. At the moment, we are guided by the principles of the World Anti-Doping Code and consider the proposed conditions to be unreasonable, legally untenable and excessive.

As for the ban on the participation of Russians in team competitions, here, in our opinion, it is not just discrimination against athletes based on their passports, but also in the disciplines they represent. Depriving at least 30% of the representatives of our Olympic team of the opportunity to compete in qualifying competitions without any legal basis. This approach is contrary to the Olympic Charter, the UN Charter, humanitarian, civil, and any generally accepted norms.

In this context, when we are essentially offered to agree to put an end to the dream of thousands of athletes to compete for Olympic medals, the proposed restrictions on the placement of this or that content on the social networks of Russian Olympians look like a deflection under political pressure from outside.

The position announced today on the non-admission to international competitions of Russian athletes who are registered in the military and law enforcement agencies or have contractual relations with them is no longer just another chapter in the list of gross discriminatory sanctions, as Ms. Alexandra Ksantaki, Special UN rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. We believe that this criterion lays the foundation for an internal conflict in Russian sports, aims to split the community of our athletes, divide them into “acceptable” and “other” not only on a national basis, and damage the Russian sports industry as a whole.

Thus, the current access parameters will in no way contribute to the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions. The decisions of the IOC Executive Board are nothing more than a farce, which is not aimed at normalizing the situation, in which the basic principles of the Olympic Charter and the UN Charter are grossly violated.

The Russian Olympic Committee will continue contacts with colleagues from Lausanne in order to obtain objective information about the destructiveness of discriminatory measures that destroy the humanitarian and unifying mission of sport.

Taking into account the fact that at the moment the IOC Executive Board has postponed the decision on the participation of our athletes in the Olympic Games, we will monitor the actions of international sports federations regarding the admission of Russians to participate in competitions.

 

[Amei]

It's a start in the right direction to get these athletes competing internationally again but there needs to be some direction from the ISU about how they will address bringing the Russian/Belarussian athletes back, the IOC is just making recommendations

 

[JimR]

Look at tennis. Wimbledon banned Russians and Belarusians so the ATP and WTA threatened them with expulsion and gave them a massive fine. That's an athletes union that has the athletes interests at heart.

That's Wimbledon too the most important event of the year and the ATP and WTA would not tolerate such discrimination against athletes for having the wrong passport.

If the best Russian women were 210 skaters there would be no Russian ban in skating. That's just my belief.

I think this is figured out before 2026, but it actually doesn't matter. We can all look at the youtube videos, look at the score sheets from this era and know without a doubt who the best female skaters on the planet are.

After such a successful Russian domestic season, international skating for Russians is of less and less importance.

 

[Ali81]

This will open the door for the Russians to enter international figure skating. They will obly be exlcuded from team events i.e. they would only be excluded from events such as World Team Trophy and the Olympic Team Event. All other events are fine.

 

[TallyT]

After such a successful Russian domestic season, international skating for Russians is of less and less importance.

And Russian skating for international audiences, the same.

 

[beachmouse]

The closest analog to current times is probably from 1992 when Yugoslavia (at that point consisting of Serbia and Montenegro) was banned from competing as such because they were under UN sanction for actions during the Yugoslavian uncivil war. Per Wikipedia, 58 Yugoslavian athletes competed as neutrals in Barcelona, winning three medals in shooting.

Yugoslavia had been the reigning world champion in men’s water polo but was not allowed to enter team sports in Barcelona as part of the neutral athlete rules and its place was taken by Czechoslovakia.

Yugoslavia also originally qualified for Barcelona in women’s basketball but was replace by Italy under neutral athlete rules.

So there is precedent in what’s proposed and the old paperwork for how it was all run in 1992 with Yugoslavia is probably still in some dusty storeroom in a random Swiss office park and it probably wouldn’t take a ton of modification to apply similar conditions to Russia and Belarus over the next Olympic cycle.

 

[Minz]

Athletes with a Russian or a Belarusian passport must compete only as Individual Neutral Athletes.

Random question - perhaps this has been dealt with for a while now, but what about athletes who have dual citizenship? Athletes who compete for another country but still have a Russian passport in addition to the passport of the country that they compete for. Or for athletes who compete for another country but aren't citizens yet, so they still only have a Russian passport? What about them?

 

[moonvine]

I’m just very confused by all this. What about Worlds? Each Fed gets one spot automatically, correct? But there is no Fed for “individual neutral athletes,”.

 

[Minz]

I too am confused about only individual athletes being allowed to qualify but teams are banned. Skating is odd because to qualify more than one spot, you'd either need the skater to finish 1st and then confirm the additional spots at Nebelhorn (which would mean that these "individual only" athletes are representing a team) or have two skaters add up a finish less than or equal to 13 (which would also mean they're on the same team). The IOC probably just meant that the name of the team (AKA, the country) is banned because anything else would actually equate to a punishment for the Russians and Belarusians which they're not gutsy enough to do.

To add to that, in FS athletes are selected by their federations - national federations. So how would that work? Also, in skating there is a limit of 3 spots per country. But if they can't be on a team, then technically, there are no quotas, right? So could like 10 Russian women's skaters all compete as neutral athletes?

It's strange because during the Olympics in 2018 and 2022, athletes still competed as members of a team. That team was simply not named Russia, but the qualification process was pretty much identical to what it would have been if the team was named Russia rather than Olympic Athletes from Russia or Russian Olympic Committee.

Or does this mean that team sports - like a team of hockey players can't compete? In which case, how far does that extend? Will only singles skaters be allowed, and not ice dance and/or pairs "teams"? Or, for that matter, any other sport which requires a team of 2 or 4 or however many?


I realize I'm probably reading wayyy too far into a probably simple (albeit, poorly worded) thing, but still, the wording is a bit confusing/unclear.

 

[moonvine]

To add to that, in FS athletes are selected by their federations - national federations. So how would that work? Also, in skating there is a limit of 3 spots per country. But if they can't be on a team, then technically, there are no quotas, right? So could like 10 Russian women's skaters all compete as neutral athletes?

It's strange because during the Olympics in 2018 and 2022, athletes still competed as members of a team. That team was simply not named Russia, but the qualification process was pretty much identical to what it would have been if the team was named Russia rather than Olympic Athletes from Russia or Russian Olympic Committee.

Or does this mean that team sports - like a team of hockey players can't compete? In which case, how far does that extend? Will only singles skaters be allowed, and not ice dance and/or pairs "teams"? Or, for that matter, any other sport which requires a team of 2 or 4 or however many?


I realize I'm probably reading wayyy too far into a probably simple (albeit, poorly worded) thing, but still, the wording is a bit confusing/unclear.

These are all good points.

 

[gsk8]

Random question - perhaps this has been dealt with for a while now, but what about athletes who have dual citizenship? Athletes who compete for another country but still have a Russian passport in addition to the passport of the country that they compete for. Or for athletes who compete for another country but aren't citizens yet, so they still only have a Russian passport? What about them?

I don't have the answer to that, but I'm sure all the details will be worked out as many skaters have dual citizenships.