MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has extended sanctions against athletes and sports officials representing Russia and Belarus, the FIG said in a statement on Friday.
The FIG Executive Committee gathered for a meeting in Switzerland’s Lausanne on March 1-2.
The organization said in its statement that, in compliance with its previously issued resolutions, it decided to keep in force measures "according to which Russian and Belarussian officials, including judges, are not allowed to take part in FIG competitions or FIG-sanctioned competitions until further notice."
"The present measures enter into force with immediate effect and replace and supersede all the measures previously taken by the FIG Executive Committee," the statement reads. "The FIG will continuously monitor the overall situation and may reassesses those measures depending on the evolution of the circumstances."
Vasily Titov, the president of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation, told TASS on March 2 that the International Gymnastics Federation would make a decision about the possible participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the qualifiers for the 2024 Olympics after a session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board in late March.
At its session on January 25, the International Olympic Committee (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.
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced on January 26 that the organization had decided to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in sports tournaments in Asia as well as in the Asian Games, subject to IOC conditions.
The 2023 Asian Games are scheduled to be held in China’s Hangzhou from September 23 to October 8 this year. The event was initially scheduled to be held last year at the same venue, but was postponed to a later date due to the COVID-19 situation and its possible spread among people traveling to mainland China.
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.