IOC head Bach details advice to let Russia, Belarus athletes return | CBC Sports

Russian athletes were given conditions Tuesday that could lead to their return to international sports events, though the International Olympic Committee said its advice to sporting bodies did not include the 2024 Paris Games.

Though the IOC gave guidance rather than orders to Olympic sports, it still defies repeated calls by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to exclude all Russian athletes and teams while his country is being occupied and attacked.

Athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus who have actively supported the war in Ukraine or are “contracted to the military or national security agencies”, should not be cleared to compete as neutral individuals, IOC president Thomas Bach said.

Russia and Belarus teams “cannot be considered” for a return to international competitions, Bach said at a news conference after a meeting of the executive board he chairs.

Team events such as relays or mixed doubles or team all-around in gymnastics should also be off limits, the IOC said in a document explaining its guidance.

The IOC’s recommendations to the governing bodies of Olympic sports “do not concern” the Paris Games that opens in 16 months’ time.

“The IOC will take this decision at the appropriate time at its full discretion,” Bach said.

In the Olympic Charter, article 44.3 states: “Nobody is entitled as of right to participate in the Olympic Games.”

The individual Olympic sports must now decide the entry and eligibility conditions for their events, which include ongoing qualifiers for the Paris Olympics.

More than 300 fencers, including nine medallists from the last Olympics in Tokyo, signed an open letter published Tuesday urging the sport’s governing body and the IOC not to allow Russian fencers to compete while the war in Ukraine continues.

‘Insufficient leadership’

The International Fencing Federation, known by its French acronym FIE, voted this month to allow fencers from Russia and its ally Belarus to return to international competitions as qualifying for next year’s Olympics in Paris ramps up. They are set to compete as neutral athletes without national symbols like an anthem or flag.

“The FIE is not fulfilling its duty of care for athletes, especially for Ukrainians. Your insufficient leadership in completely banning Russia and Belarus is being called out by athletes and civil society across the globe,” said the open letter signed by the fencers, organized by two advocacy groups, Athleten Deutschland and Global Athlete.

“You have chosen Russian and Belarusian interests over the rights of athletes, notably Ukrainian athletes, and by doing so, you are failing to support the very people your organizations are meant to support.”

The IOC recommended excluding Russian and Belarusian athletes on security grounds last year following Russia’s invasion but has recently sought to create a pathway for them to return to competition.

Bach opened a board meeting with a defence of letting Russian and Belarusian athletes compete in international sport, saying that it “works.”

“We see this almost every day in a number of sports,” Bach told media allowed to film his opening speech at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Bach first cited cycling and tennis, though there was tension among fans in the stands at the Australian Open, and women players from Ukraine have regularly refused to shake hands or be photographed with opponents from Russia and Belarus.

Fencers are the latest group to show support for Ukrainian athletes, who are almost universally opposed to the IOC’s push for letting Russians return, while track and field’s World Athletics governing body last week extended its exclusion while the war continues.

The group who signed the open letter include Lee Kiefer of the U.S., the Olympic gold medalist in women’s foil, French men’s team foil gold medalist Erwann Le Pechoux and four-time Olympic medalist from Ukraine, Olga Kharlan.

Billionaire Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov has been the FIE president since 2008, though he suspended himself from his duties on March 1, 2022, days after the invasion, after he was placed under European Union sanctions.

The FIE’s decision has already affected its competitions after the organizers of an upcoming event in Germany on the showpiece Grand Prix circuit refused to stage it.

The event in May in the town of Tauberbischofsheim, where Bach grew up, would have been one of the first fencing competitions to include Russian and Belarusian athletes since the invasion.