MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. The issue of allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to come back to international competition was not discussed between the International Ski Federation (FIS) Council members and the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach, the FIS press office said in a statement to TASS on Monday.
IOC President Bach paid a visit to the FIS Alpine Ski World Championships, which is being held from February 6 and 19 in two neighboring locations in the French Alps, Courchevel and Meribel.
"We only have a handful of Council members at the World Championships, so there were no formal discussions about the Russia-Belarus participation," the statement from the FIS press office reads.
The FIS press office also added that "President Bach was at the FIS Alpine World Championship in Courchevel/Meribel only in an informal capacity as a personal guest of [FIS] President [Johan] Eliasch. There were never any formal meetings planned, nor held, during his visit with any FIS officials."
At its session on January 25, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Athletes from the countries in question should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status.
On January 26, 2023, Ukraine’s Youth and Sports Minister Vadim Guttsait announced on his Facebook (outlawed in Russia, owned by Meta Platforms, Inc. which is recognized as extremist in Russia) page that the Ukrainian NOC (the National Olympic Committee) was considering boycotting the 2024 Summer Olympics in France if the ban on the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in international sports tournaments was lifted.
On February 2, the sports ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland urged the IOC and International Federations (IFs) to ban athletes representing Russia and Belarus from taking part in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
On February 9, Reuters news agency quoted IOC President Thomas Bach as saying in a statement that a possible boycott of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris by the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee (NOC) would be in violation of the Olympic Charter.
IOC’s ban on Russia’s international participation
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.