Russia’s path to the 2024 Olympics is being formed, Ukraine objects

LAUSANNE, Switzerland. Russia’s path to sending a team to the Paris Olympics next year became clearer Thursday amid fierce objections from Ukraine.

The International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday it was supporting officially neutral teams from Russia and its ally Belarus at the 2024 Olympics, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s call to exclude them entirely.

A day later, Russia and Belarus were invited to take part in the Asian Games, a key Olympic qualification.

Russia usually competes as part of Europe, but it has tense relations with many countries that are supposed to host qualifiers there. Russia and Belarus were banned from almost all international competition in Olympic sports after the invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskiy said he told French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is hosting the Olympics, that Russia “does not belong” there. Ukraine is seeking support against a plan brokered by the IOC.

“The IOC ignores Russian war crimes, arguing that “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport,” while Ukrainian athletes continue to be killed by Russia because of their passports. I call on all sports figures to state their position,” Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Ukraine boycotted the Olympic judo qualification last year when the Russians were allowed to compete as neutrals.

In Russia, the IOC plan was highly praised by Igor Levitin, an aide to President Vladimir Putin who holds influential government and sports positions.

“I think it’s already a success. The Olympic Society understands that the Olympic Games cannot be organized without Russia,” Levitin, senior vice president of the Russian Olympic Committee, told the state news agency TASS.

Some Russian officials expressed dissatisfaction with the IOC’s statement that it would not allow athletes found to be “actively supporting the war in Ukraine.” Russian Olympic Committee President Stanislav Pozdnyakov said on Wednesday that he opposes “any restrictions, additional requirements or sanctions.”

An IOC statement on Wednesday referred to the civil war in the former Yugoslavia at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. The country was under UN sanctions, so Yugoslav athletes were only allowed to compete individually as “independent Olympic competitors”. They did not take part in team sports such as football and basketball.

This would be stricter than previous IOC action against Russia due to the long-term effects of one of the largest doping cases in the history of sport. The Russians competed under the name “Olympic Athlete from Russia” at the 2018 Winter Olympics and under the name ROC – short for the Russian Olympic Committee – in 2021 and 2022 without their country’s anthem or flag, but with national colors on their uniforms.

The Asian Games will be held in Hangzhou, China in September and October and will be Olympic qualification tournaments in several sports including archery and boxing. Some other sports have qualifying competitions for Asia.

“OCA believes in the unifying power of sport and that all athletes, regardless of their nationality or passport, should be able to compete in sports,” the OCA said in a statement.

Kuwait’s longtime OCA CEO Hussain al-Musallam is also the president of World Aquatics, which oversees the main Olympic sport of swimming in the IOC’s hometown of Lausanne.

“The OCA has offered to provide eligible Russian and Belarusian athletes with the opportunity to take part in competitions in Asia, including the Asian Games,” the organization said in a statement.

The OCA added that it “remains on hold” until the IOC and individual sports governing bodies finalize the conditions for Russia and Belarus to compete.