MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/. /TASS/. The British Olympic Association (BOA) has no issue with athletes from Russia and Belarus participating in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris as neutrals, BOA chief executive Andy Anson said on Thursday in an interview with Sky Sports.

"Any Russian or Belarussian athlete present will be doing so clearly as an independent," the British sports TV channel quoted Anson as saying.

"That is the current guideline and we are happy with that, happy that as long as it's not teams representing Russia, as long as they are not affiliated with military, we are happy this is the right approach," the CEO of the British national Olympic body said.

"The Russians have been banned from a lot of international events in the build up to Paris, so there are not that many who have been able to qualify [for the 2024 Olympics]," Anson continued. "Even if there are a number of independent Russian athletes at Paris, we expect up to 100, not the 400 that were at Tokyo."

After Tokyo hosted the Olympic flame at the 2020 Summer Games, it is set to travel to Paris for the Summer Games in 2024, and then to Los Angeles in 2028. In 2021, at the 138th IOC (the International Olympic Committee) session in Tokyo, Australia’s Brisbane was selected to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games.

"We're supportive of having independent athletes there, we don't want to have athletes punished all the time for the conflicts going on around the world, so as a national association we are supportive of that," the BOA chief noted.

Anson said that the BOA’s decision to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate under a neutral status at next year's Olympics also comes after consultations with the Athletes Commission of the Great Britain (Team GB).

"We were at the European Games in Krakow and there were no Russians, but at Wimbledon there were Russian athletes competing. I think we have a happy balance at the moment, it's not easy," he said.

"We talk openly with our athletes all the time. We have got to point where we are happy," the BOA chief stated. "Clearly there will be some people who don't agree, but we have a solution, a position we are happy with at the moment."

On October 12, the International Olympic Committee (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.

IOC sanctions against Russia

On February 28, 2022, the 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.