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Russian athletes vying for 2024 Olympics must not be linked to ROC — IOC chief Bach

Thomas Bach that the IOC reserved the right to decide whether to let athletes with Russian passports compete as neutrals in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games

MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. Russian athletes wishing to participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris must not be affiliated with the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach said on Friday.

On October 12, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.

Bach told journalists that the IOC reserved the right to decide whether to let athletes with Russian passports compete as neutrals in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, but on the condition that they have no affiliation whatsoever with the ROC.

"We will keep monitoring the developments. There is no time pressure," Bach said speaking about the Russian athletes’ possible participation in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

"We reserve the right to invite by ourselves individual, neutral athletes with Russian passports and this means the ROC will have no role to play," he said.

"These will be direct invitations which we will manage with the international federations and if needed then with the respective national federations, and also in this way to make it clear that there is no representation of Russia or Russian Olympic Committee by these athletes," the IOC chief added.

IOC 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.

In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended 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.

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