The International Olympic Committee Tuesday issued bold recommendations for the progressive return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competitions, with the IOC President Thomas Bach affirming that their involvement is still viable despite the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine.
The IOC Executive Board's recommendations concern only the return of those athletes to international competitions but not the 2024 Olympics where a separate decision will be taken at a later date, Bach said.
"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 told a news conference after the meeting.
The IOC had sanctioned Russia and Belarus after the February 2022 invasion but it is now eager to see athletes come back across all sports and have a chance to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
It has set out a pathway for these competitors to earn Olympic slots through Asian qualifying and left it up to international federations to decide on an organization, but has faced headwinds, with Ukraine threatening to boycott the Paris Games should they compete there, even as neutrals.
"Participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports in international competitions works," Bach had earlier said in his address at the start of the IOC's executive board meeting 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 said. "In none of these competitions security incidents have been happening."
Russians and Belarusians have been competing as neutrals in some sports but their presence at some events, such as tennis tournaments, has triggered angry reactions from some other athletes.
IOC recommendations
Bach said the recommendations for events organizers and sports federations to follow include Russian and Belarusian athletes can only compete as neutrals, with no flag or anthem.
They cannot take part in team events and have to have a proven drug testing record.
Athletes who support the war or are contracted to their countries' military or national security agencies cannot take part.
These recommendations, however, do not include the Paris 2024 Olympics and the potential participation of Russia and Belarus, Bach said.
"The IOC will take this decision at the appropriate time at its full discretion, without being bound by results of previous Olympic qualifiers," Bach said. He did not say when the IOC would take that decision.
World Athletics, the biggest Olympic crowd puller, however, last week decided to keep Russians and Belarusians banned from all their events for foreseeable future due to war, going against the IOC.
A dozen countries boycotted this month's women's world boxing championships in protest at their presence at the event while more than 300 fencers wrote to Bach to ask the IOC to reconsider allowing them back, calling it a "catastrophic error" should Russia and Belarus return.
Germany's elite athletes' grouping Athleten Deutschland on Tuesday also pitched in, called on the IOC to ban them completely for the duration of the war.
"As long as the war of aggression continues, we consider a complete exclusion of Russia and Belarus to be imperative," it said in a statement, adding that "the exclusion must apply to federations, officials, and unfortunately also to athletes."
Bach said politics could not be a part of sports competitions and athletes should not be punished for their passports.
"We will not be able to come up with a solution that pleases everyone. With this, we may have to live."