MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) plans to financially compensate athletes from the national Olympic team for their inability to compete in international sports tournaments, ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov said on Thursday.
According to the Russian Olympic chief, the mooted compensation payments are necessitated by sanctions or other adverse decisions made by international sports governing bodies that have sharply curtailed Russian athletes’ ability to compete internationally.
"Although the ROC is a public organization, it is ready to make up for the losses that our athletes inevitably incur," Pozdnyakov said. "I have instructed that a document be drafted that will stipulate financial payments to Russian Olympic team members."
"This includes athletes who competed in the Olympics, continue to compete, or are preparing for the Olympics, but were deprived of the right to participate in international tournaments," he continued. "It will also include those who, on moral grounds, have declined to sign documents [condemning Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine] and have not taken part in such actions."
"Our range of available tools has contracted, [but] we have found the internal [financial] means to support our athletes," Pozdnyakov stated. "Payments will be allocated starting early next year for athletes competing in summer sports."
"One-time payments will stand at 500,000 rubles [about $5,200], 350,000 rubles [$3,640] and 250,000 rubles [$2,600] for athletic achievements, while 150,000 rubles [$1,560] will be paid to all athletes on the Olympic team who continue to train and participate in tournaments," he added.
The French capital of Paris is scheduled to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games between July 26 and August 11, 2024.
IOC’s sanctions against Russia
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.
At its session on January 25, 2023, 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. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.